Flawed but strong handling of a relevant topic

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2006)

First things first: I think the Academy made a mistake naming Crash the best picture of 2005. Not that I didn't like the movie: it just so happens that it has a few defects that make it less Oscar-worthy than fellow nominee (and strongest contender until the ceremony actually took place) Brokeback Mountain. That said, the movie deals with a serious issue in a bold way, and therefore deserves to be seen.
Written and directed by Paul Haggis, who also penned the beautiful Million Dollar Baby, Crash shares its title with David Croneneberg's 1996 shocker, but contains none of the latter's sex-and-death imagery or themes. Instead, Haggis' work covers 36 hours of L.A. life, with various, totally different people who "crash" into each other. They have nothing in common, except for the fact that in a way they're all racists. These people include a black cop (Don Cheadle), his "Mexican" mistress (Jennifer Esposito), a DA (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (a surprising, serious, angry turn from Sandra Bullock), a shopkeeper from Iran, a thief (Ludicrous) and his pal, and others. Their problems range from Esposito making fun of a Chinese woman's accent but at the same time shunning whoever mocks her descent to Fraser finding it difficult to honor an Arabic law enforcer named Saddam (okay, maybe he's got a point there), though no one is as troubled as officer Ryan (the justly Oscar-nommed Matt Dillon), a man so unpleasant even his partner (Ryan Phillippe) feels uncomfortable working with him. The worst part is, Ryan's aware of this problem, but doesn't seem to care that much about it ("You don't like me, that's fine. I'm a pr*ck."). Still, he proves everyone can change when he saves a colored woman (Thandie Newton), whom he was molesting earlier on in front of her husband (Terrence Howard), from the film's central accident.
Crash has excellent, gripping performances (Dillon, Bullock and Howard shine above all), and that's what really keeps the movie together, especially in the epilogue where the script's weaknesses begin to emerge: as talented as he is, Haggis' decision to end his directorial debut with a string of coincidences is a partial disappointment. The bigger problem, however, is Ludicrous' character: with his erudite thoughts and philosophical reflections, he is just too artificial for a movie that aims to depict a realistic day in American citizens' lives.
Aside from these flaws, though, Crash is a good, thought-provoking picture. Maybe not Best Picture of 2005, but interesting anyway.