Pathetic.

Rating: 1/10 (6 March 2006)

To call this film pedantic is an insult to every Hollywood blockbuster currently in the pipeline. The characters are written poorly, the dialogue is Troma laughable and to say that the plot is intricately and delicately done is ridiculous. The fact that this film has been crowed about as a serious look at racism in America really shows how far we've fallen as a society.
To say that this movie is going to be forgotten in a year is to overestimate its impact immensely. This is a snapshot of a sad time in America when we thought a moment when the young white cop turns out *gasps everywhere* to be a closet racist the whole time! Sarcasm is wasted on this film.
Far from being the best picture of the year, in my opinion this may well be the worst of 2005. Not in quality so much as the sheer moral damage it will do to every strata of this society. To think that the complex problem of racism in America could be examined by throwing a dozen characters together into contrived situations and have their story threads smash into each other (or....crash?) is nothing short of arrogant.
This movie promotes easy answers to this difficult issue. Not that this would be a problem in and of itself, but the fact that it takes itself so seriously when the quality of the piece itself is sub par is what really sets it apart as something unworthy of serious thought.
As far as examining American society, this kind of heavy-handed liberal guilt does nothing but separate us along already testy political lines. Are there any conservatives who are going to sincerely look at this movie and feel something change in their hearts? I doubt it. As far as a movie that examines racism in much more nihilistic and subtle terms, take another look at Night of the Living Dead. As facetious as it may sound, that movie examined American society with a much more critical eye than this batch of liberal tripe could ever hope to achieve.
Between this and Million Dollar Baby, Paul Haggis has shown that he has absolutely no ear for subtlety. And the fact that this current movie features so little actual character development as to have none is reason enough to banish it to the farthest reaches of cinematic hell.
There is absolutely no reason for Thandie Newton to suddenly forgive Matt Dillon's character, there's nothing leading up to Ryan Phillippe's murderous twist.
And the fact that there were so many characters made it impossible to follow all of their stories with the attention that they deserved. This made it necessary for their to be a few too many musical interludes, allowing us the movie to catch up on all the characters and me to catch up on my sleep.
The Academy should be ashamed that they awarded this hooey the coveted Best Picture Oscar when Good Night and Good Luck did so much more with so much less. I know that film will be one of the first I show my children to show them what happens when real people take a real stand for something. The real consequences of stating your conscience in this world.
Crash deserves to be relegated to the trash bin, not rewarded. I look forward to seeing it on the bargain shelf.