Has it moments but too far from being perfect

Rating: 7/10 (18 January 2006)

I had a strange feeling after the Crash. While everything seemed to be in place, the whole thing didn't deliver to it's promise. It took me days to realize what was wrong.
Most of reviews adore performance by leading actors. Doubt it. Bullock? A few scenes to play a stereotypical heroine. Fraser? Nothing at all. Not their fault. Being so crowded with people, the script left almost no space to act for the most of the cast. The best performance actually comes from those who obtained the air in the script (TV director, his wife, corner shop owner).
The essence of the movie is too simplistic. Good people could turn bad, bad people could still be good. Now try to tell the essence of Magnolia in brief, it will take much more lines and time.
The mentioned conversions in Crash took place in pretty binary manner. Bad cop converts almost at once, which is looking to be not justified properly. Yes, there are reasons behind, but they are too difficult to figure out given with plethora of heroes and stories. Again the movie would have really benefited if the script was less packed. Compare with 21 grams.
The most impressing scene with the child and the gun worked fine (I cried) but this move is not a revelation. Check Shyamalan's Unbreakable, where the same scene delivers to the top thanks to the slow and accurate developing towards it.
Anti-racist face-slapping, personal drama, problem of authority possession, family drama  Haggis packed too many themes in one script. The only thing it probably misses for real is a drop of self-irony. That pre-final scene with the storm of ash heavily reminds of the frog rain from Magnolia, which was that only and necessary drop. Crash is taking itself far more serious, which is not making it wittier.
Too many loose ends. If they followed that 2-minute discussion about Iraqi fireman nomination it wouldn't look so artificial. Did they finally change the locks in attorney house after that 4-minute rumble? Why showing in detail all that facial expressions by his unnecessary black female assistant? If Cambodians in LA was an effort to borrow some ironic finale from Magnolia it didn't work as well.
OK, enough grumbling. Actually I gave 7 stars to Crash, which means I rather liked it.
What's really captivating in Crash is that it deals with sensitive racial issues in sincere and straightforward manner. What others would hide in politically correct wordings Haggis takes naturalistic. For the first 20 minutes (before style flickering starts) Haggis even takes over Manderlay by Von Trier. Some parts are really great piece of screen writing and directing  I'm still under impression of that silent scene with parallel inner conversation by TV director and the shop owner. Episode with body search was really strong and precise. The less worked better again, which unfortunately applies not to the whole movie.