Movie Haiku - Crash

www.crashfilm.com


Dir: Paul Haggis


Cast: Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillippe


So many people

things not always black and white

watch their lives collide


Crash arrives on a wave of critical acclaim. It's an ambitious film looking at the lives of a number of very different people living in L.A. during a 36-hour period, with an overall theme of race and colour, and our prejudices towards people. Structurally it's similar to Magnolia or Short Cuts with each scene focussing on a different set of characters, but as the film progresses each story overlaps and we eventually get to see how all of these people are involved with one another. There's a rich couple (Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock) who are victims of a car-jacking at the start of the film, two cops who are partners (Dillon and Phillippe) who on the surface have little in common, a Detective (Cheadle) who is supposed to be looking for his criminal brother... in fact at first there seems to be far too many characters to keep track of, but as events unfold it becomes easy to follow, and to be honest you get really drawn in and engrossed in the drama. This isn't the sort of film that you'll watch over and over, but it is an excellent piece of work and deserves all of its plaudits. The script is tight and engaging and on the whole makes you examine your own prejudices. Nothing in this film is black and white - with every character we're given some context or motivation for their actions, and the film constantly works to twist at our own expectations as to how each character is going to react. These people have flaws, but they all have good in them too. A film such as this succeeds due to a great ensemble cast, and Crash has this - with Cheadle, Dillon, Newton and even Bullock all on top form. Only Fraser let's the side down, but thankfully he only has a few scenes! Director Haggis (who also wrote the screenplay) has done a good job here and uses Mark Isham's score to soundtrack scenes when no dialogue is required. If perhaps a little intrusive at times, the music is superbly suited and evokes the nocturnal activities of L.A. in the same way that the soundtracks to Collateral and Miracle Mile did. One of the best movies I've seen this year and definitely worth bumping into.

soulmining rating: ****