Reader, I walked out

Rating: 1/10 (17 August 2005)

Well, I seem to be out of step with the majority view here, but I have to say that I HATED this film, despite the good things there were in it (some good dialogue amidst the schematic, mouthpiece-for-the-writer stuff and some good acting, especially from Don Cheadle and Thandie Newton). Although I accept that the film was trying to say important things, for me it simply didn't work at any level, because of the writer/director's shouty, showy style; "I'm saying something REALLY significant here; and look, all the people are prejudiced, not just whites, isn't that edgy; and oh, did you see what I did there with that snazzy editing?" I don't like being preached at, and that's what I felt with Crash.
*SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH* Like one or two other reviewers on this site, I was also bothered by the relentless contrivances Haggis uses to get characters into the same space, many of which simply make no sense; and the ludicrous things some of them do once there: what was the director doing driving through that dodgy neighbourhood? How did the irate Iranian man find the locksmith's address (yes, Haggis thoughtfully showed a shot of a circled address in a phone book, but come on, how many people called 'D Ruiz' are there in LA??)? And I didn't believe for one moment that he would have fired the gun once he saw the girl. AND another thing: blanks at that range would still have caused injury or even death.
My biggest objection to this film is that nearly every character is a cipher. Don Cheadle's mother is straight out of Central Casting, with one incredibly clichéd line ("I was doin' real good"); Sandrea Bullock's uptight WASP was even more annoying than she was meant to be; you just KNEW that Matt Dillon's racist LAPD officer would turn out to be a Great Cop.
Crash (not to be confused with the David Cronenberg film, despite an opening speech which gives a none-too-subtle nod to it) has been compared to Magnolia, for an obvious reason: the multi-stranded plot. I think it also shares Magnolia's overweening self-importance and lack of humility; with its constant attempts to wrong-foot the viewer's expectations, it paradoxically becomes tiresomely predictable.
*MORE SPOILERS* By the time of Ryan Philippe's confrontation with Larenz Tate, which, again, I did not find remotely credible - surely Tate's character would have realised how spooked the other was, and *explained* why he was laughing, rather than reach into his pocket, thereby signing his own death warrant - I'd had enough. I didn't care what happened, as these people did not come alive.