Surrounded by people, but still so alone (Crash (DVD))

Member Name: JuliaJolie

Product:	Crash (DVD)
Date:	27/09/08 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent acting, script, direction and score

Disadvantages: Some characters left underdeveloped

Imagine living in a place so congested with people who are so self-concerned with their own pretensions and desires that it takes a car crash to bring about contact, and, in turn, their own prejudices to the ugly light of day. It's a place in which there are so many people living, but it's like entropic molecules - they bump and bounce and ricochet off their confines, til you're surrounded by chaos, but you still feel alone. Los Angeles is large but sparse, and hard to get around if you have no car. Trust me, I've been there...

The car crashes are multiple metaphors in this movie about several character-driven vignettes; each story depicts the fragility and self-absorption of some very flawed characters while asking for very little sympathy. There is the story about a black TV executive and his wife; a white cop struggling with issues with the health of his father; a black detective searching for his wayward brother whilst caring for his ill mother; a DA whose wife had had her car stolen; a Persian family and their store; an Hispanic locksmith and his daughter; and two black thieves trying to make ends meet. All of the stories interweave seamlessly in a way that suggests that we are all connected, but that the crashes are a sharp reminder.

It is the intercutting story technique that makes one need to pay attention to every exchange of dialogue, facial expression, and musical cue, because no breathing room is offered here - each moment, each frame, means something. The exceptional quality of the acting affords us near-perfect beats in which true moments of the characters are revealed. But this also means that if you want to watch this movie while eating a pizza or folding the laundry, you're not going to catch what's been so tightly packed into this film.

The movie itself is about racism, and, to a lesser extent, ignorance. Unlike previous works on the same subject, Crash illustrates how racism can be institutionalized, casual or blatantly obvious. It offers an intelligent perspective on how racism can indeed be ignorant on many astounding levels - a scene in which the mother of family comments on racist graffiti she has seen finds her saying , "Since when did Persians become Arabs?" In this piece there are no overt prejudicial threats - no neo-Nazis, no gang warfare, and no historic strides against racism are depicted here.

The acting in the film is so startlingly genuine that one almost forgets how star-studded this cast really is, and the quality of the work is fascinating given that this was Paul Haggis's directorial debut. Ludacris (credited here as "Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges"), is positively illuminating as the insightful Anthony, who provides much of the intelligent monologue, which is given more poignancy due to his articulate nature being completely wasted on his moronic sidekick Peter (Laurenz Tate). Matt Dillon also shines as Officer John Ryan, showing us his personal struggle with his inner demons, but offering up his distasteful social opinions as a frustrating contrast.

The only really negative issue stems from the fact that, due to the vignette format, the film falls into the trap of leaving some characters undeveloped. I would have liked to have seen more about Daniel (Michael Peña) and his daughter, and I also felt that Farhad (Shaun Toub)'s motives and character traits were hastily rushed and left unexplained.

Ultimately, the subtlety of the script and direction leave us to make up our minds, as the subject matter is old, complicated, and controversial. In this day and age we often don't want to see that such attitudes still exist, especially among educated people, as this makes the realisation all the more chilling. The moments of loss and love stay in resonance long after the film has ended, but often it still is hard to believe that so many people in a movie can just casually spout such racist insults to each other. The interactions are original - in any other movie they would have been "resolved", handled clichédly, or worse - heavy-handedly. It showcases often-ignored aspects of racism, from whites, non-whites, even within races. The hauntingly beautiful score highlights key moments, all of which are simple but shocking, thought-provoking, and sincere, and while it does not offer much in the way of resolution, it is a movie that you think about when it's over, and think about how it might make some of us take a good long look at ourselves.



[x-posted from ciao]

Summary: An excellent study of prejudice in its basic conceptual roots - fear and change.