Curiously Over-Hyped Melodrama

Rating: 4/10 (15 May 2006)

There are some movies that are 'actor's movies'. They feature characters racked with such anger/guilt/resentment/self-loathing that every sentence of dialogue allows the actor to have a field day with every trick they ever learnt in The Actor's Studio. Filled with such impassioned emoting, these movies convey an initial impression of depth and powerful emotion. It's only on reflection that the viewer realizes that behind the tear-jerking, over-dramatic theatrics are characters and a storyline with all the depth of a birdbath after a spring rain. 'Crash' is one such movie.
The performances are universally outstanding, but the quality of acting is wasted on such poorly developed characters. The denizens of 'Crash' are, with few exceptions, preposterous caricatures, wearing their exaggerated prejudices on their sleeves and fueled by borderline-sociopath bouts of irrational anger. None are particularly likable or sympathetic. These cliché characters wander through a story propelled by increasingly contrived and unbelievable coincidence. After you've predicted the third plot 'twist' fifteen minutes before it arrives, the whole thing becomes quite dull and tedious.
Paul Haggis was a successful TV writer for 20 years; the mind that brought us 'Walker: Texas Ranger' and 'Due South'. Then, with 'Million Dollar Baby', he entered the Oscar-winning Big Time, as if from nowhere. But for all his awards and success, there is little evidence of a talent that goes much beyond the tear-jerking emotionally-manipulation he honed during re-writes of 'Thirtysomething' back in the eighties. This stuff may be thought-provoking to the average High School student, but as a grown adult, it resembles little more than a 21st century version of the domestic melodramas of the 1950's.