Crash

Right now forget all the preconceptions you have about Crash, forget all the associations that the cast list brings you, forget whatever impression the title triggers and definitely forget about genre. Crash is just a perfectly crafted tale of us humans trying to get on in that most inhospitable environment, urban America. Like life itself Crash has violence, sex, murder, love, joy, revelations, twists and tears, but simply put if you are human too, and alive, then you'll enjoy it.

With its plethora of storylines and characters Crash has a lot going on, but amazingly every moment is of the upmost quality. Other movies that adopt the mutli-storyline approach often suffer from diluted characters that can seem similar and individually unimportant. Not so with Crash, here every character is truly unique and each situation concerns different issues.

At the start though, it is dramatically racist. The theme of different races crashing together runs throughout the movie, but at the beginning can seem shallow. Two black guys walk along the street talking about how they are mistreated by whites, before stealing a white couple's car. A black couple are pulled over by two white cops for a spurious reason. One of the cops, Sgt Ryan (Dillon) is a definitive racist and takes the opportunity to feel up the black woman while the other cop, officer Hanson (Phillippe), looks on.

Yet as the film develops so do the issues and emotions. There are many scenes in Crash that are incredibly moving, something it easily achieves because this film is just so damn human. It shows that our conflicts arise through our human error; misunderstandings, prejudices and fear, not because we are all fundamentally different.

The script is superb, very moving in places, clever and funny where needed. All the acting is spot on; suspension of disbelief is unavoidable from the start. It is beautifully shot too, with the pace able to give each storyline enough time but fit so much in too.

Can't praise this film enough.

Nick Grills