Crash (2005) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Paul Haggis

Starring:  Don Cheadle, Brendan Fraser, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Larenz Tate, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Michael Pena, Ryan Phillippe, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Shaun Toub, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner

Crash wants to be, and thinks it is, a searing, deep examination of racism.   But its threading story lines unravel, and its moments of power disappear beneath some of those plots' unlikely and silly resolutions. There is a lot of hate, distrust, preaching, and cynicism between its characters, and Crash bashes us over the head with its ideas in case we weren't paying attention, which we possibly might not have been. 

I first saw Crash upon its release in 2005, and it would go on to win the Best Picture Oscar, beating out the heavy favorite (and far superior) Brokeback Mountain in one of the biggest head-scratchers in Oscar history.   I will speculate that Oscar voters wished they could have that one back.   This isn't to say Crash isn't a movie with good intentions, but it is all intentions.

Let's try and explore the morass of stories which make up Crash:  An affluent black couple (Howard and Newton) is pulled over by two cops (Dillon and Phillippe), one of which pats down Newton and sexually assaults her while her husband looks on helplessly.   Phillippe is a rookie cop torn between loyalty to his partner and intervening on her behalf.   A detective (Cheadle) investigates the murder of a fellow cop mixed up in drug dealing.   A Persian store owner (Toub) mistakes an honest, family man locksmith (Pena) for a gang member and holds him responsible when his store is robbed.   Two carjackers (Bridges and Tate) have a nasty habit of carjacking the other members of the cast, and the wife (Bullock) of the Los Angeles district attorney (Fraser) has a meltdown after being attacked by the carjackers one night.   

But there is more.   The cop who felt up Thandie Newton has a sick father who can't get proper medical insurance, the Cheadle character has a criminal for a brother, and Cheadle's girlfriend, a fellow detective, has romantic problems with her partner.    Crash has subplots for days, but is so intent on connecting them that we have to wonder if there are only fifteen people in all of Los Angeles.   These characters keep running into each other, and after a while, the plot mechanisms slow the movie to a halt.    One such coincidence involving a second run-in between Dillon and Newton is the movie's only genuinely powerful scene, as Dillon redeems himself in a way, but can we forgive him his earlier trespasses?   Hey, he attacked Newton, but he isn't such a bad guy after all, is he? 

The resolution of the store owner and locksmith has to be seen to be believed.   The store owner tracks the locksmith to his home.   He approaches the locksmith and pulls a gun on him, demanding the locksmith pay back the money the store owner believes the locksmith stole.    The locksmith's daughter runs out and jumps into her father's arms just as the store owner pulls the trigger.   There are tears and the sad music swells up.   We assume the daughter was shot and killed, but wouldn't you know it, the gun was loaded with blanks.   The locksmith takes his daughter into the house and the store owner stands outside dumbfounded by what just happened.   That's the end of the story.    Isn't it against the law to fire a gun at somebody, even if you didn't know it had blanks?   Shouldn't the cops be called and maybe even Dillon or Phillippe would show up because it's that kind of movie?   

Two other characters (Phillippe and Tate) meet when Phillippe picks up Tate in his civilian vehicle after Tate tried to carjack Howard's Lincoln Navigator earlier in the day.   Phillippe, of course, responded to the scene and talked Howard into not getting himself shot.   Tate fled the scene prior to Phillippe's arrival, so he doesn't know that we know he tried to carjack Howard.    Phillippe and Tate soon start to argue, and things end badly for Tate, with Phillippe perhaps discovering his inner racist after all.   Or was he just protecting himself?    We don't know because we don't see what happens, just its aftermath when Phillippe gets rid of the body and lights his car on fire in the middle of an empty lot.  

These are two examples of how insipidly constructed the screenplay (which won the Original Screenplay Oscar in another huh? moment) is, depending on implausible chance encounters to tie things together, especially in Los Angeles.  Would Crash have worked better if the plots didn't intertwine?   It's hard to argue against the possibility.     It's difficult to fault the performances.   Their characters are adrift, and Crash lacks the spontaneity of life.   All of these fates are tied together, bound by prejudice and racism.   It wants to be profound, but Crash collapses under the weight of its pretentiousness and its silliness.