Movie Review: Crash [2004]

"I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something"

Crash is one of the most surprising Academy Award winners of all time. When Jack Nicholson opened the envelope  he was shocked because could not find there Brokeback Mountain. Well, that is not right, Crash was definitely worth of Oscar, despite my huge love to Ang Lee's drama.

Paul Haggis narrates the outline of everyday life of most people, everything that is common for any society - hatred, stereotypes, death, victims, unpunished offenders and most important, influence we make on each others lives, which can be unconscious, accidental or intended. Extraordinarily written script evolves through 36 hours of L.A. life connecting number of random citizens. A story of racism is not new thing to tell, there are more recent films (for instance The Help) that specifically regards the problem of every generation. But even this hundred times discussed issue can not decay originality of script because Crash interacts people with exceptional cultural, racial or social backgrounds and they all have same problems and as it turns out they ain't that much different from each other.

It is not an easy work to tie in so many tragedies with each other and tell a united and unique story. That is why I believe Paul did an outstanding job as writer. The plot develops dynamically and everything seems logical. Each scene is extremely emotional and I almost cried in two scenes:  first when a Persian store owner shoots Daniel's little daughter, I had a short moment of thinking that she's dead and fathers emotions are so much real that I still have this feeling during 100th watch. Second is officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) saving Christine in car accident. When she recognizes a policemen, who almost ruined her life, she desperately asks for help and they have a very short argument - which clearly expresses regret, apologies, humanity the same time.

However, there are far more moments in Crash that don't allow you to relax during screening. And this is particularly what I like. Only few films can put you on nerves and make remember each your emotion for a long time.

Acting panel is brilliant. Matt Dillon's Oscar nomination speaks about his performance. Sandra Bullock as a racist wife is awesome. She perfectly delivers a character who changes her believes regarding black people. Ryan Philippe's young  policeman is exactly what it should look like. He's the one who can not understand hatred towards other races but is not capable of helping them, especially when his co-worker does his best to humiliate a colored couple. And other small but remarkable performances.

Why I loved this film so much? Because it has everything a good movie has to have: simplicity of storytelling, complexity of plot, great cast, emotions, it shall attach you to the screen and make re-watch many many times.

10/10