Charity's Place.com

CRASH

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Because of: language, sexual content, nudity, thematic elements

Rated:

It has taken me a long time to view this film. Not because I wasn't interested, but it never seemed that important. Having watched it, I must reflect on the decision to give it a Best Picture Academy Award and wonder why. It's a film that spews out an anti-racism message that is so blatantly racist in of itself that it becomes offensive. I quite frankly cannot imagine why so many esteemed actors chose to participate in it.

Trying to categorize the plots into one review is difficult, since so many of them are running all at once. There's the cop who feels up the wife of a movie producer when he pulls them over for lewd behavior, and then must pull her from an overturned automobile the following day. There's the cop's partner, who disapproves of his behavior but doesn't have the courage to do anything about it but ask for a transfer. He soon comes into contact with a pair of street thugs who hijack expensive cars for the parts. Inadvertently, they run down a man with a van full of illegal Chinese immigrants. One of the women whose car was stolen becomes panicked, and accuses the man hired to change their house locks of being a gang member. He goes home to a little girl who loves her daddy very much, never realizing that their entire world will soon be threatened by a vengeful storekeeper.

The Iranian storekeeper has no way of keeping his store open after it is burglarized, leading him to desperate measures. The hijackers make the mistake of pulling the wrong man over. The husband of the woman who was molested by the police nearly goes off the deep end. The wife of the district attorney takes a tumble down the stairs. And on and on it goes, a labyrinth of interconnecting lives that serves as a reminder that we are never alone in life, that the person we pass on the street has a home, a family, a purpose. From that perspective, Crash does have an underlining message that no man is an island and what we do influences other people, as most of the characters eventually find out.

However, the fact that nothing is resolved, none of the plots are wrapped up, and ultimately the overlaying racism displayed undermines the message the film attempted to get across. There are some thought-provoking scenes, such as when the policeman who sexually molested a woman is forced to pull her out of a burning vehicle. In the end, a criminal does the semi-right thing and refuses to allow illegal immigrants to be sold as property. It was also somewhat difficult to concentrate on the plot with so many f-words flying around. I stopped counting in the first five minutes. There was also a scene of semi-graphic sexual content that involved female upper nudity and some coarse dialogue. A policeman pulls a couple over for having oral sex in their car, then proceeds to feel up the woman's skirt and stick his fingers where they don't belong. Violence comes in the form of various fist fights, explosions, and a few gunshots to the head.

I guess I was waiting to be impressed, and wound up being disappointed instead. Many people hold Crash in high regard, but I am not one of them. I would much rather spend my time watching Walk the Line instead.