Fabulous!

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2005)

This is what cinema is all about, a movie that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go even long after the movie is over. Hats off to Paul Haggis who wrote and directed (and who also did such a marvellous writing job on "Million Dollar Baby")it and with the help of Don Cheadle, who is one of the stars and producers, raised the funds for it and exercised artistic control all the way. And what a way. The characters are fully realized, multi-dimensional. One feels one knows a character (a white racist cop turns out to have a seriously ill father that he nurtures and cares for so tenderly)and then another dimension is added, the same cop risks his life to rescue a black woman from a blazing car crash. One never knows where the stories are going, down even to the very ending there are more surprises in store. In someone else's hands this could have been a wreck of a movie, the extremely racist dialogue would have been softened and blurred. But not here. I found it breathtaking that so many story lines were crammed into the movie,(and yes, there are some metaphoric levels as well which really work and some truly lovely magical moments) but the characters are engaging and real. A faultless cast who give of their very best, Tony Danza, for example, excels in a very tiny role, but he is only one talent of so many. Everyone shines in this and it is difficult to single any one out. In real life racism is all around us, vocalized often in the safety of homes, more often as a reaction to the unexpected: an accident, an imagined rip-off. This movie dares to go where no movie has gone before. 8 out of 10. Bravo and brava to all.