An interweaving tale of family relations and racial tension, Paul Haggis' Crash really only exceeds at one thing: making sure the audience is aware of their own personal prejudices. This film is decently engaging and slightly interesting at times, but the overall theme of the movie becomes way too overwhelming. While the performances and writing were decent, there is nothing about this movie that makes it absolutely memorable.
The best elements of this film involve the way that it told its story and some of the performances. The plot itself, along with practically every other part of this movie, was very mediocre. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, it is just simple. I enjoyed how Haggis utilized a Tarantino-like style to tell the stories of the multitude of characters. The audience checks in with the characters throughout the film as they constantly cross each others' paths over the course of a few days in Los Angeles. While this technique was practically pioneered by the infamous Pulp Fiction director, it just becomes typical after a certain amount of time. The writing of this film was still able to maintain its dramatic tension, however, which was impressive. Another part of the writing that I enjoyed was the shock value that was incorporated. Especially in the scene where I thought Michael Peña's daughter was shot, Haggis is able to build up to these scenes excellently. As for the performances in this movie, Michael Peña was definitely the standout character. He showed so much love and compassion for the people around him and he was honestly my favorite part of this entire movie. Don Cheadle, Ludacris, Sandra Bullock, and Matt Dillon were all good too, but not as spectacular as I expected. This film won Best Film Editing as well, which I do not see how it won that. The editing did its job, but it was generic at every turn. Along with the cinematography, these technical aspects were just done very plainly.
Overall, Crash just gave me a feeling of... blah. Not that it wasn't interesting, but it did not entirely hold my attention. The main reason behind this is because of the characters only being written for a specific purpose: to serve the message of the film. While this should be the goal of every movie, this film did not keep it subtle when it came to the theme of racism and prejudices. Haggis really pounded in the fact that we all hold prejudices against people of different colors or backgrounds, no matter how visible. Since all of the characters were written around this message, I did not feel any authenticity to their actual personalities and lives. I feel like there could have been more of a focus on creating the characters with parts of their actual lives and not directly discussing racism the entire film. Which was also my main issue with the characters of Anthony and Peter, played by Ludacris and Larenz Tate, respectively. They are introduced in the film as two friends who come out of a diner discussing the blatant stereotypes that the waitresses had just placed on them. After them talking about the subject and making the audience believe that they would be the moral center of the film, they instantly decide to carjack a couple at gunpoint, embracing those stereotypes. I really did not appreciate this part of the writing, as I feel it is horrendous for a writer to introduce characters as one thing, but then show them to be something completely different only because of the color of their skin.
Some of the cast were very under-utilized and the treatment of women in this film was atrocious. Actors like Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock only had a few scenes and very little runtime was devoted to them. Fraser plays a district attorney while Bullock plays his racist wife and while their arc was explored by tossing Bullock's character down a flight of stairs, they were not used as much as they could have been. I would have enjoyed seeing a more developed arc of redemption for them, but they did not ever get that treatment in the writing. The females in this movie were all written terribly as well. There was not a single woman character in power, as they were all represented as either delusional wives or crazy, racist mothers. And it does not help that the only defining scene with Thandie Newton's character involved her getting practically molested by Matt Dillon's character after they were pulled over.
Crash is a solid movie that definitely fits every aspect of a film worthy of the Best Picture award. That does not necessarily mean that the film is entirely interesting, though. While I enjoyed Michael Peña's character and the use of narrative storytelling, nothing else about this movie is going to make me want to go back for a rewatch.
My Rating: ★★½
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