As Bad As It Gets

Rating: 1/10 (15 May 2005)

I know of no clearer instance of the folly of a too ambitious director filming his own stories or screenplays than this latest offering from TV writer manque, Paul Haggis. While Haggis, or his cinematographer, may have some talent for the visual,(I have in mind certain of the overhead shots and those wide vistas of Los Angeles), if he has any talent for fresh and effective storytelling, in this film he's done his best to hide it. Except for a few pointed racial wisecracks (think "All In The Family") and some vituperative huffing and puffing from a largely wasted Sandra Bullock, Haggis' dialogue along with his imitation, repetitive Kieslowski plot and stale optimistic theme is embarrassingly pedestrian. The film, replete with unconvincing coincidences (the Ryan Phillipe good cop/bad cop sequence is especially annoying), takes as premise the easy idea that we are all basically the same, essentially decent folk when push comes to shove, so it's more the pity, even baffling, that we can't all just get along. Haggis' is paint by numbers screen writing. Now while it might play before an experientially challenged audience in a TV studio or a Hollywood boardroom eager to think well of itself, as a vision of actual human nature or chance as contemporary urban human beings really encounter such, "Crash" unforgivably strains credibility and boorishly tires the ear.