CriticSociety- film reviews

Review

Crash

Director

Paul Haggis

Year

2004

Rating

Reviewed by

José Ruiloba a.k.a. Morris

Review date

Thursday, August 25, 2005

When Crash played at the Sundance Film Festival as one of the many independent movies seeking distribution, no one would have thought that it would later be called the “sleeper hit of the year”. It opened at the beginning of summer and played for weeks to packed houses, due to strong word-of-mouth. All movies crave for that kind of thing to happen, but only few manage, even when they’re good. But still, it is proof that more often than not, quality reigns.

The movie tells many different intertwined stories set in L.A. Estranged Det. Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) is having an affair with his partner (Jennifer Esposito), while they investigate a crime involving two officials that could have been motivated by racism. D.A. Richard Cabot (Brendan Fraser) has got to face the press and public about this, while on the other hand dealing with having just suffered armed-robbery of his van while out with his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock). Anthony (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate) were responsible for that, and other robberies. When Sgt. Ryan (Matt Dillon) and Officer Hanson (Ryan Phillipe) receive the stolen van’s notification they spot a similar one, and they ask its occupants to pull over. As it happens, TV director Cameron (Terrence Howard) was just getting a blow job from his wife Christine (Thandie Newton) in the van, but they’re treated like criminals, and she is searched and indecently touched by Sgt. Ryan in front of her husband and a visibly angry Officer Hanson. We then find out about Sgt. Ryan’s own life as he struggles with his very ill father (Bruce Kirby) and can’t get their insurance to treat him as he should.

By this point, you might be wondering why the movie has that title. It’s simple: writer/director Paul Haggis crafted a story in which there are a lot of car crashes that involve many of the characters mentioned above. Haggis uses these encounters as a parable to tell a story in which he is basically saying that life is unpredictable, that you can run into countless different people in any given day and that there are different consequences regarding how you treat people, both in your life and in theirs.

Haggis relies on what may look like forced coincidences to tell his story, but if you look closer you’ll realize that what he might have done is far simpler. He could’ve just as well taken one character and followed him around and told the stories of the different branches of people that open up regarding this specific character. In a nutshell, he created his own microcosm to paint a portrait, and his script is carefully planed and executed.

What it ultimately comes to is a detailed examination of what racism means today and the effects it can have on our lives. It never feels like we’re being preached, but it does force you to think about your own self and how you would react in different situations, and how tolerable you are of people that look and think differently than you do. The movie connected that much with people because it basically gets inside of you and asks you to reconsider the person that you are or that you want to be. And that’s a powerful thing to convey, especially in such a subtle yet in-your-face way.

The movie also makes a strong statement about racism not being relegated to the usual White-Black dilemma. In the movie, we get difficult situations involving Iranians, Latinos, African-Americans, Asians and many more people that can be found in a world where globalization is taking center stage. But it’s not just about race; it’s also about the differences between the powerful and the defenseless, the poor and the rich, and the role each takes in everyday life.

There isn’t one stand to take. It’s more complicated than that and humanity does not work with a simple right-and-wrong formula. There’s a situation in the movie that cleverly embodies this specific idea: a White rich woman is walking down the street and sees two young African-American men coming close to her and her husband. She’s afraid, but if she turns around she would be labeled a racist, so she says nothing, and the next minute she’s assaulted by these men. She had a pre-conceived notion about these people and she was right. But later on she has a similar situation with a tattooed Latino fixing her house’s locks in which she mistrusts him, and as we find out later, she was completely wrong about him. How do you know? How do you act? Should you give everyone the benefit of the doubt? Or… should you always take care of yourself first and think about others second? But what to do when it could potentially hurt other people’s lives?

I was surprised by how every scene had something important to say. And there were a couple of very intense sequences that left me literally breathless, such as Sgt. Ryan’s second encounter with Christine or the aforementioned Latino (Michael Pena) getting “protection” from his daughter.

At the end there is a catharsis in everyone’s life, and something peculiar happens that reminded me of another excellent multi-character movie, Magnolia (1999). Not every character is a better person, but they all come to the realization of who they are and what really matters to them. Now the question is left for us in the open… and it’s demanding yet necessary.

Kudos to every single actor involved and to Haggis for getting these performances out of them. I personally liked Matt Dillon’s work more than anybody else’s, but others such as Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock and Terrence Howard deliver especially great performances as well.

“You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.”

CriticSociety en Twitter | CriticSociety en Facebook

Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter

Other reviews of Crash (2004): Groucho

Review

Crash

Director

Paul Haggis

Year

2004

Rating

Reviewed by

Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

Review date

Monday, September 12, 2005

TV veteran Paul Haggis became a name for his adapted screenplay of Million Dollar Baby (2004), which was certainly worth noting and admiring. Later he debuted as a screen director with Crash, which he also co-wrote (with Robert Moresco from Haggis’ story), a surprising personal ensemble movie that tackles racism among many other sensitive subjects of the human nature. The film became a sleeper hit and I was surprised to see its cast. And though the effect wasn’t exactly positive on me, I did enjoy my time and I’m eager to recommend it as a unique and very potent experience.

The setting is Los Angeles. There are several subplots intertwined masterfully with each other. Coincidences abound but it’s never unbelievable, and I’m a believer that real life is exactly like this: we’re all connected, probably more closely than we can imagine.

There’s no point in comparing this film to other such ensemble pieces, but I’ll say it’s easier to follow than many and the stories are hardly forced into each other. Also, the contrasts are subtle and though this is actually a story of contrasts, you can feel a general mood that is always the same so it’s a pleasant ride… if the term pleasant can be used for such a gut-wrenching movie.

To name a few stories, we get Detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) investigating the murder of a young man and having an affair with his Lain American partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito); D.A. Richard Cabot (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock) dealing with a mugging they suffered from a couple of black men (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and Larenz Tate); a black couple of high society (Thandie Newton and Terrence Dashon Howard) trying to cope with a harsh experience they had with a racist cop (Matt Dillon); the latter’s partner (Ryan Philippe) trying to find the strength to protest against his co-worker’s ways; that man’s (Dillon) hard time trying to get his father (Bruce Kirby) proper medical attention which is on the hands of a black woman (Loretta Devine); a Persian immigrant (Shaun Toub) having a hard time trying to reach the American dream; and so on.

As you can see, every story thread has something to do with racism, and I must say it’s somewhat excessive. However, Haggis manages to deal with it in a decent way and never preaches or lectures, though he seems a bit tragic about the situation. What I liked is the way racism is treated in every way, from black to white, white to black, white to Arab, and so on. As expected, some of the stories work better than others. The one that broke my heart involves a man (Michael Pena) who tries to protect his daughter (Ashlyn Sanchez) from a violent world; his scene involving an invisible and invincible hood made me cry. On the other hand, the story of the D.A. and his wife didn’t get me at all and I felt it was a waste of time. In that matter, I was sad that many stories were underdeveloped, though it was too much to swallow already so I don’t really wish they had spent more time. Somehow the film made me feel overwhelmed yet left me wanting. I wonder if that’s a good thing.

Truth is, there are several powerful scenes. The most effective are the ones with little dialogue, like one involving a man shooting another and someone getting in the way, another involving a man struggling in the bathroom, and especially one involving an officer trying to save a mistrustful woman after a car accident.

All the performances are pretty impressive. Dillon in particular surprised me with his rough turn, and after him Ludacris and Newton were the best. Bullock is good but a bit over-the-top, and Cheadle’s presence is pretty potent.

Not quite memorable, but an interesting film, and a good one too.

“You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.”

Gon C Curiel en Twitter | CriticSociety en Twitter | CriticSociety en Facebook

Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter

Other reviews of Crash (2004): Morris