Welcome to the review of what has got to be the most heavy-handed film of the year. “Crash”, not to be confused the 1996 car accident fetish film from David Cronenberg of the same title, was written and directed by “Million Dollar Baby” scribe Paul Haggis, so right away we have a big tip-off that this isn’t going to be an easy film. Nor should it be – the film blatantly addresses and explores racial and gender issues that Hollywood films are often criticized for sidestepping. Which is all well and good and therapeutic and of that, but the problem is that “Crash”, with its eclectic ensemble of gifted actors (headliners being Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, and Matt Dillon), offers nothing but such addresses and explorations.
Over and over again, the focus switches from one strained relationship to another – a well-off African American husband and wife, a poor locksmith and his five year old daughter who worries her dad will be shot, a couple of L.A. cops who are like “Training Day” characters turned sideways, etc. – the common denominator being that these characters are allowed to transcend their roles as generic types just enough so that we would buy into them and seriously consider their arguments and situations. “Crash” is obviously built to be an “important film” – probably why so many name actors took smallish parts in it. But it doesn’t take too long to realize you are sitting though some sort of elaborately dressed Hollywood-gone-indie sermon, telling us what we should be concerned with, and how rotten we really are to one another.
The movie does have its moments, and will most likely garner some critical praise just for being what it is. Haggis takes almost every major class and ethnic group in America and attempts a quick-like on-screen mass dissection. In true recent ensemble film style, ala “Short Cuts” and “Magnolia”, these characters tend not to cross paths too often, if ever. The title alludes to a car crash that kinda sorta connects them all, but that too feels like window dressing in comparison to the overall goal of the film. We’re supposed to be asking ourselves, “What is correlation between the rich white politician’s (Brendan Fraser, in his obligatory occasional hard-hitting “indie” role) self-centered career and his unhealthy marriage?”, or “Is the bitter Iranian quick shop owner (Shaun Toub) ever justified in his gun-toting anger?” (The latter storyline proves to be the best of the film’s many threads, but any student of screenwriting and story structure will likely correctly guess the outcome.) It didn’t take me long to grow tired of the film’s transparent agenda to be “provocative”.
Perhaps the film’s biggest strength is that no character makes it to the end of “Crash” unscathed. Everyone is confronted with some form of racism (not to mention the perhaps more prevalent-in-America classism), be it their own, or a loved ones. On the other hand, Haggis is smart enough to know that if that weren’t the case, the film’s credibility as “honest” would be on the line. But really, how honest is a world where every conversation between two black people is all about being black? Larenz Tate and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges characters only interrupt their diatribes on always being presumed as hoods by white folks to carjack an SUV.
Maybe it’s cynical to assume that everyone in this movie did it for the career boldness credibility it would bring to their resumes. (And all in a fraction of the time it would take to shoot a full length role.) “Crash”, is, after all, trying to do something for the greater good of Hollywood and humanity – even if it does fail under its own heavy-handed weight. This isn’t a film that’s going to make or break any of the actors’ careers, but if you want to see Don Cheadle in a truly important and fulfilling film, check out “Hotel Rawanda”. Some of the threads of “Crash” prove more satisfying than others, but ultimately, they all fall short of what was being attempted. All that said, it is kind of surprising that a feel-bad movie like this got made in Hollywood, especially before Haggis’s “Million Dollar Baby” acclaim. Let’s hope whatever future projects he parlays that acclaim into are more worthwhile than this one. The title doesn’t so much describe the action on screen as the way the forced topicality hits the audience. “Crash” isn’t so much a movie with a message as it is a message disguised as a movie.
- Jim Tudor