Crash

Crash is one of those excellent interweaving stories where the lives of strangers co-exist in small worlds next to each other and occasionally they overlap. If it was a book, you’d file it alongside Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and in the film world, you’re going to hear many comparisons between this film and movies like Robert Altman’s Short Cuts or Magnolia.

Crash boasts a great cast and some excellent performances, most notably from Ryan Philippe, Matt Dillon, Terence Howard, Thandie Newton and Don Cheadle. What links much of the film, set in the present-day, are frustrations over perceived mistreatment or prejudged racial fears – a young black man coming off worse for perfectly good work that he does as a security alarms and locks fitter, a racist cop (Dillon) abusing his position to sexually assault a young woman whilst her partner looks on helpless, a jaded cop (Cheadle) who sees so much of LA life and a DA (Fraser) out to curry favour through the spin gained from contrived photo opportunities. Its intelligently written by director Haggis, who wrote Million Dollar Baby. There are so many good moments in the film overall, and each one hits the emotional button well.

Whilst the film does have a plot that depends a little on coincidences happening to produce this vivid snapshot of LA life, you have to admire the director's ambition in wanting to interweave all these stories together. It’s the sort of film that many writers would love to conjure up as a screenplay and if you were to pick out one actor’s performance above the others, you’d be hard-pressed to pick a better one than Don Cheadle's, merely because he holds the film together so well.

Matt Arnoldi