Intense drama

Rating: 9/10 (19 April 2009)

It might be that the way the different stories which are told in this film come together in a seemingly unrealistic way. But somehow, you can direct this critique for almost all episodic films of that kind, like R. Altmans "Short Cuts" for example. Yes, it is unlikely that it would coincide that way, but the yardstick might be to watch the film under the "but what if it does come together" assumption. How convincing are the situations and characters portrait when things come together that way? Viewed under this premise, I would say that it is an intense, sensible drama with deep emotional twists: the film does evoke empathy. We feel how humiliating it must be first to be molested in front of your husband by a racist police officer and at the following day being rescued (and touched again) by him. We can experience how unsatisfying a life might be which is based on material wealth only, the anger and the paranoia it might evoke...and the loss of real friendship, so that at some rare occasions, the housekeeper is recognized as the best friend one has. We can imagine how it might feel to be a black police officer who is trying to make a political deal for his criminal brother, thereby supporting a system of racial prejudice he wanted to left behind, and nevertheless being accused by his slightly mad mother of being responsible for the death of the same brother in the end.
People who live in LA - which I never did - might feel that the everyday racism we see here is exaggerated and that they were hardly confronted with so many little/big incidents. Again, I'm not sure that this criticism is doing the film justice. I think the message is not "look how much obvious or hidden racism there is in LA". Because this film would have worked in many different places with similar characters and similar stories interlocking. I have no problem to transfer the action to Paris in my mind. Or to Hamburg, Moscow, Istanbul or Mexico. Even the people who hide behind glass all the time and who missed to be touched so much that they crash into each other to just feel something are not special to LA, I would say. The thing is: the characters and situations portrayed here are intentional exaggerations of widespread phenomenons in today's world. And because the film is cinematically very artfully done, with the camera work, the spheric music, city lights etc., one very easily gets absorbed by the film from the very minute it starts. Highly recommended!