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 | Crash Director: Paul Haggis Rated: MA Palace Nova, Now screening  Crooked LA cops, car crashes, guns, fires, action, controversy, sex, racial hatred. This film has all the necessary elements for mainstream success except that it's characters that are not goodies and baddies. Nothing here is simple. Competitive capitalism isn't delivering and racism has many shades, all of them ugly.This film collides a multi-ethnic array of characters on the streets of Los Angeles, exposing their fears and the complexity of their prejudices. It is a film making style most reminiscent of director Robert Altman ('Nashville', 'M*A*S*H', 'Gosford Park'), with many characters and several streams of storyline mingling. There's couples of cops, car-jackers, African-American socialites, Mr & Mrs District Attorney, a security system installer's family and more, all of whom are strangers to some of each other and beloved to others. Los Angeles has the main role though, and its ambience of insecurity is the setting. In supporting roles are Matt Dillon ('There's Something About Mary') and Don Cheadle ('Hotel Rwanda') who both play cops with two sides to their characters and Sandra Bullock ('Miss Congeniality'), a wealthy housewife who has everything except friends and peace of mind. Jennifer Esposito ('Summer Of Sam') and Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges join every other character here on the verge of a nervous breakdown. New writer, director Paul Haggis was inspired to portray the fear created by our rulers and the media as it plays out in LA-LA land. It is a timely and intelligent sociological thriller that all Americans ('USers', that is) should see. The fact that it is showing at an 'art-house' cinema here probably means it didn't get multiplex distribution over there either, and so they won't. Instead, people like you and me who actually know all this stuff (from kindergarten) will troop along and emerge hoping it represents a glimmer of sanity coming from 'post-9/11 Hollywood'. The rather contrived fables are essentially about how money can't buy you happiness or security, and about how messed-up, for all its 'progress', western culture is. The film especially shows how unjust the justice system is, and how sick the health system is. It says, "the American Dream has become a nightmare". There is a familiar ring to all of this of course, and Haggis does tend to pitch his wake-up messages at the level of a slightly thick audience. As well as being well-intentioned though, it is well-paced, well-acted and has enough irony, paradox and unexpected twists to be darkly entertaining and it even ultimately offers some hope.  | |
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