The city of angels

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2005)

Paul Haggis immense achievement in "Crash" left us breathless and speechless. Mr. Haggis and his collaborator and screen writer, Robert Moresco, take us to an area where most American film makers, or studios, dare not go. We are given a series of unconnected stories, that at one level, seem not to make sense, and at the end of the film, we are surprised to realize how everything one sees in the film is inter connected in one way, or another.
"Crash" is not a film that wants to be politically correct. The ugly truth of race relations in America are nowhere more visible than in the Los Angeles of today, where Mr. Haggis places the story. The city, with its complexity of cultures, is the right territory where one can see the way things are done in that city, which might stand as an example of a multi-racial community in America today.
If you haven't seen the film, perhaps you'd like to stop reading here.
Los Angeles police has been at the center of several notorious cases, which in a way, seems to parallel what the film is following. At the same time, we are shown decent people in that department trying to cope with the job to protect its citizens of all colors and races.
One of those people happen to be Graham, the detective that is battling his own demons. His mother is a drug addict that is trying to go straight. His own brother is a common criminal ready to hijack valuable cars for a profit. Graham must make a deal at the end of the film in order to protect his brother. In a way, he too, is a victim of the same system that he is trying to uphold.
We meet a black bourgeois couple Cameron and Christine, who are stopped by a cruising patrol car when something lewd seems to be taking place in the car. The crooked police officer Graham humiliates and belittles this innocent couple that happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Cameron is a spineless black who would rather be abased than open his mouth to protest officer Graham's indecent groping of Christine. Graham's partner Hanson is indignant about what he watches his partner do to the helpless woman.
There is also an up and coming yuppie couple, Rick and Jean, who we see walking to their car. Two black hoodlums mug them and rob their expensive Navigator SUV. He turns out to be a D.A. that is more interested in the image he would project to black minorities if he goes too hard on the guys that steal his car. The wife, though, has no problem in spewing her venom directed to the Hispanic man, Daniel, that has been summoned to change the locks of the house.
Daniel, the Hispanic locksmith is also called to fix a lock at an Iranian store whose owner is Farhad, an indignant man reduced to do menial things. Daniel fixes the lock, but not the door itself that earlier is seen as not closing properly. When Farhad tells Daniel about it, he tells he fixed the problem, but the door is not his concern. Daniel is cursed by the ignorant man that cannot comprehend how the locksmith refuses to fix the door. Instead of reasoning, the Iranian goes into a frenzy. When the store is broken into, later on, Farhad's reaction is that Daniel has done it. There's only one way to fix the problem: take the gun to Daniel's home and kill him.
Daniel has moved his family from a crime infested area to this new neighborhood where he feels it's safe to live with his family. We watch Daniel in a tender moment with his daughter in which an imaginary invisible cape that will protect the girl. That same imaginary cape is what seems to save her from the shot directed to her father, as she happens to get in front of it. This sobering experience will change both Farhad and Daniel.
"Crash" is a study in contrasts. The same bigoted Graham, who has been so nasty in the earlier episode, in a twist of fate, is drawn to the accident site where Christine is trapped in her vehicle. Graham valiantly and showing no concern for his own life pulls a hysterical Christine, who has recognized him, from the wreckage.
The film has an unique texture as it build layer upon layer on all what we are watching, enriching the it as the multiple stories succeed one another.
Mr. Haggis triumph lays in the excellent performances he has obtained from the wonderful cast put together. Don Cheadle makes another magnificent appearance as Graham. Mr. Cheadle, who helped produced the film, has another opportunity in which to shine.
Terrence Howard as the cowardly Cameron shows he has a tremendous range as he goes from one extreme to another. Mr. Howard, one of the best actors around shows why he is one of the best in the business. Thandie Newton is also good as Christine, a woman who can't understand her husband and resents his lack of courage. Matt Dillon as the prejudiced policeman has the best opportunity of his career in a short, but quite excellent role.
Brendan Fraser, Sandra Bullock, Ryan Phillipe, Loretta Devine, Michael Pena, William Fichtner, Larenz Tate, Shaun Toub, among others do amazing ensemble work under the inspired direction of Mr. Haggis.
This is an important film that shows us how each one of us is directly affected by bias and prejudice. Mr. Haggis triumphs in that he is not preachy, but point out to what he sees wrong with our society.