Really didn't like this movie (spoilers)

Rating: 6/10 (3 June 2005)

I went into 'Crash' expecting to see a great film (mostly from the responses on the boards and from the reviews of a few friends...)
With that said, I was terribly disappointed ---
The first 30 minutes or so I thought it was going to be great, but the movie really lost me with what appeared to be 'forced' and 'desperate' attempts at making the characters 'complex.'
For me, the general theme of the movie (other than the overdone racial lessons that we were supposed to learn) was that all people are complex (rather than the static characters found in most movies.)
You have Matt Dillon - One minute he is molesting the woman and then the next he is saving her...
You have Ryan Phillippe - One minute he is saving a black man and then the next minute he is killing one (after an extremely cliché scene where the 'victim' reaches for something other than a gun.)
You have Sandra Bullock - One minute you think she is a *witch- and the next you sympathize with her because she is just a lonely and bored housewife ---
You have Ludicrous who one minute is preaching about one thing - The next minute he is doing something totally different - The next he is asking his friend to kill a man - The next he is stealing again - And then the next minute he is freeing Thai people -
This goes on and on with every character to the point where you wonder why the writer/director felt the need to make everyone so complicated -
I mean, yes -- People are round -- Not everyone is static -- However, having molesters be heroes, and car jackers be saints, and immigrant clerks be murders (all in the same day) was just a little much...
Are we supposed to sympathize with them? Are we supposed to relate to their inner struggles and personal demons? I just didn't know --
I mean, just when you started to relate to a character they switched to another story - I honestly can't say that I cared about a single one of them (with the exception of the locksmith and the little girl -- who was unfortunate enough to have possibly the cheesiest scene in the movie ( "I saved you daddy..." ))
Why did the director feel the need to 'idiot proof' the movie by showing the box marked blanks?
Why did the Persian girl and her father speak English to each other when they were alone?
Why was it snowing in Los Angeles (at least the frogs in Magnolia offered a genius ending which left the viewer discussing the meaning behind it long after they left the theater.. I mean, when the viewer is wondering how they are going to tie up the movie, frogs just fell from the sky -- genius.)
At least if the little girl would have been killed at the end of the movie there would have been some emotional involvement for the viewer (and then the racism / mayhem that surrounded all of the characters would have caused something truly tragic to happen to someone who was completely innocent. That would have at least made me think rather than just feel like I was being preached to...)
The acting was great - There were some very strong scenes ... Much of the writing was clever ... The story was kept tight enough to keep the viewers interested...
Overall however, they tried to be too deep and too political ---
It is unfortunate because it could have been a great movie ---
6/10 -- Not what I expected, but not terrible ...
Let me know what you think ....