Not a huge newness in the abundant world of movies but still very good.

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2006)

As it's already well known, the occurrence is set in contemporary Los Angeles. Here we are pinned to the short and also contemporary stories of a few individuals that come from various ends of society. And somehow their everyday lives cross or should I say crash over each other because of numerous and coincidental events. A series of events, reactions and counter reactions determine the stories pace and direction.
You never know who is the next person you are going to crash into. Throughout the story the only person that seems to be the nexus of all these incidents is an official called Graham (Don Cheadle). Despite his ignorance considering the causes of most events, he is the starting-point to almost every character in the film.
The heart of the story rotates around the attempt to expose the duality of each and every person involved in a certain situation. On one side of the medal the characters are shown as cold, racist, annoying, angry, on the other side, the position they found them self's into stimulates them to act unselfishly, kindly, openly and make a few hard self-sacrifices.
I've had high hopes before seeing this film. I expected something more dramatic, more serious and more complex. Astonishingly there is a good deal of humor and cynicism in some parts. And unfortunately a good deal of clichés too. The dialogs could use some sharpening in the sense of memorizing them. I also think that it's a bit too much involved in the general stereotypes about each race. But ultimately the film proves that those exact stereotypes, no matter how stupid we think they are, are the main reason for racial intolerance.
What I also could not fully digest is the periodic notion that I am watching a TV-film and not a big screen release. Maybe it had something to do with the "look" of the film. But don't worry about that. Even the most fanatic visual-technical freak will gradually skip that aspect and get pulled in the series of deeply moving scenes. And hands down to each and every actor. To me it is almost impossible to pick the absolute best performance. It's one of last years best movies, though far from perfect, you will remember it for the edginess of it's characters. And also for the accuracy in modifying and converting their tones.
........ 4/5 ........