Misses the Mark on Almost Every Level

Rating: 4/10 (7 September 2005)

This movie tries very hard to be a racially themed version of Magnolia and doesn't come close to the power of human emotion in that film. Don't get me wrong Magnolia is indeed a flawed film itself but it succeeds much more than it fails. And if you don't believe Crash wants to be that movie take a look at the musical montage near the end showing where all the characters are in the story and the freak of nature occurrence of snowfall in L.A., no rain of frogs granted but almost as unlikely. But where Magnolia took the time to stretch out its characters and provide plenty of room for its random connections and coincidences Crash fails completely. The movie piles on coincidence after coincidence until they lose all emotional power and any chance of being truly compelling. Someone needs to tell the director the old saying goes, "Less is More" not "More is More" which seems to be his mantra for this film. If there were just one or two in the film they would have packed much more of a punch. Instead I found myself predicting which one would come next and rolling my eyes at the absurd number of them. I do believe there's a good intention behind this movie but it doesn't matter when it sledgehammers you over the head with its themes. Racism is definitely much more subtle today then what is portrayed in this film which makes it much more disturbing then the blatant over the top portrayals we see in the film. And by the way what good does it do to have a black character discuss white people's irrational racist fear of black people and then have him perpetuate that stereotype by indeed being a carjacker. COME ON! I expected more from a talented writer such as Paul Haggis who did such a beautiful job with the script for Million Dollar Baby. There was a movie with subtlety that had emotional power. Most of all I felt absolutely no sympathy for Sandra Bullock's character who was nothing but a spoiled rich bitch who deserved to fall down those stairs and preferably not be helped. An even bigger problem is practically none of the characters are held to any kind of real accountability for their actions. I don't care how angry the convenience store owner was that gives him no right to point a gun at a man in front of his family and try to kill and then not be held accountable for his action just because of some B.S. Deus Ex Machina about blank bullets. ACCOUNTABILITY people that's a message that needs to sent.