Crash (2004)

an amazing creation involving multiple stories

Director: Paul Haggis  

 

The director’s Porsche was carjacked on Wilshire Blvd. and that was the basic stimulus for the film which is similar to Iñárritu’s concept of multiple storylines which display their connection by the end of the film.

 

Taking place over two days in Los Angeles; a black LAPD detective Graham Waters (Don Cheadle) and his partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito) are investigating a car accident. 

 

On the previous day, a Persian man named Farhad (Shaun Toub) and his daughter Dorri (Bahar Soomekh) are trying to buy a gun, but Farhad becomes angry and isescorted from the store. His daughter remains behind and buys a gun and a box of ammunition.

 

Rick Cabot (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Jean (Sandra Bullock) are carjacked by Anthony (Ludacris) and Peter (Larenz Tate). When the couple arrives at home, she demands that the locks be changed. When the Hispanic locksmith Daniel (Michael Peña) arrives, he changes the locks but Jean tells her husband that due to Daniel’s appearance, he must be going to sell copies of the keys to their house to potential thieves.

 

The other important story involves police officer John Ryan (Matt Dillon) and his partner Tom Hanson (Ryan Philippe) who stop an SUV that resembles the carjacked car, which is being driven by a black film director Cameron Thayer (Terence Howard) accompanied by his wife Chrstine (Thandie Newton). She becomes argumentative, and an angry Ryan sexually molests her during a search.

 

The resulting somewhat accidental interactions between all of the characters move the plot to cause the characters who have wronged others to see the errors of their ways. The movie ends rather mysteriously, with a rather rare snowstorm in Los Angeles.

 

This is a complex and moving film which won the Best Picture Oscar and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.  Most assuredly it is well worth seeing! Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars.

 

In a manner similar to the films Babel, 21 Grams and Amores perros, various stories involving different characters gradually become connected. The action is devastating, the script is incredible. The music by Mark Isham is haunting.

 

It shows what great filmmaking can be done for $6 million.