Skip to content
Helen M Jerome reviews
- Cert:
- Running time: 112 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Released: 12th August 2005
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Widescreen: 1.66:1
Written and Directed by:
- Paul Haggis
(writer/producer Million Dollar Baby)
Producers:
- Cathy Schulman, Don Cheadle, Bob Yari, Mark R Harris, Bobby Moresco, Paul Haggis
Director of Photography:
- J Michael Muro
(Open Range)
Music Score:
- Mark Isham
(The Cooler, A River Runs Through It)
Cast:
- Jean: Sandra Bullock
Graham: Don Cheadle
Officer Ryan: Matt Dillon
Ria: Jennifer Esposito
Flanagan: William Fichtner
Rick: Brendan Fraser
Cameron: Terrence Howard
Anthony: Chris ³Ludacris² Bridges
Christine: Thandie Newton
Officer Hansen: Ryan Phillippe
Peter: Larenz Tate
The feel-bad hit of this Summer, Crash is certainly no relation of David Cronenberg’s movie of the same name. But it does induce similar knots of anxiety in the stomach while watching. Allegedly made for a pittance, it was funded by a handful of people like star Don Cheadle, who believe in veteran TV writer Paul (Due South, EZ Street) Haggis. For Crash is an issue movie. And the uncomfortable issue is race.
Set in Los Angeles, right here, right now, and peopled with articulate characters on every side of the law, the circular and densely interwoven plot is less important than the messages it conveys. Moral certainty is hard to pin down; everyone is suspicious of their neighbour, everyone has a price, and trust is in short supply. And just when you think you have a character sussed, they do a handbrake turn and leave you gasping in disbelief. LA is viewed as a powder keg of racial tension and simmering anger, ready to be lit by the simplest inflammatory act.
There are some seriously good bits of acting on show here. Sandra Bullock discards her cooky, rom-com persona as the emotionally cold, moneyed housewife in her ivory tower who fears everyone. Don Cheadle discards his dodgy Oceans Eleven cockney accent to play a police detective with a Latino girlfriend, a junkie mother and a thieving brother. He tries to do the right thing, but is inevitably compromised at every turn. Rapper Ludacris and Larenz Tate are perfect as the constantly feuding and frequently funny young thieves constructing their own flexible moral code as they indulge their passion for SUVs. And Matt Dillon is just plain obnoxious as the foul-mouthed uniformed cop consumed by bitterness.
Multi-culturalism takes a bit of a bashing, as do idealism, political correctness and old-fashioned decency. In fact, only money, guns and politics flourish in this climate of fear. Nothing on view is completely black and white though. Which is Haggis’ point.
Just when you think there is no hope left, however, entrenched positions shift ever so slightly, stereotypes show another side and a couple of characters even achieve unlikely redemption. The violent, racist cop heroically risks his life and the car-jacker turns down easy money to do the decent thing. But the overall outlook remains bleak.
These are complicated times we live in, and Los Angeles looks itself in the mirror in Crash and doesn¹t like what it sees. But our inclusive attitudes to race in the UK have also been shaken recently and we can no longer be complacent. British audiences should emerge questioning and discussing their own attitudes something few films achieve.
PERFORMANCES
SCREENPLAY
SOUND/MUSIC
OVERALL 
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.