"You think you know who you are? You have no idea." In some way, this applies to every character in the film. We think we know who we are, but only in the most extreme situations, when we are angry, scared and nervous, we truly show it.
And that's exactly what Paul Haggis, director, producer and co-writer, is trying to portray. "Crash" begins with the story of Jean Cabot ( Sandra Bullock), the spoiled wife of the District Attorney Rick Cabot ( Brendan Fraser ), who are carjacked by two black burglers. After, the characters start to collide with each other. They all have one thing in common: their lives have been changed due to racism. There's the racist police officer, the black detective and his drug dealer brother, the persian shopkeeper and his daughter, the TV director and his wife and also the hispanic locksmith.
There are no main characters, because they all are relevant to the plot. They all are just pawns in this emotional chessboard, when their lives bump into one another. In these bumps, they finally learn about who they are, about what they are doing with their lives.
The film may be short ( less than two hours ), but at the same time it's powerful. Since the beginning till the conclusion, there's always a feeling of incessant excitement, almost as they want to take our breath away.
Marvellous choice of actors, marvellous performances, especially from Matt Dillon, who got nominated for the Academy Award of Best Supporting Actor in the role of the frightful officer John Ryan, and also from Thandie Newton, who plays the woman that is molested by him.
"Crash" is an intense film, which shows in a direct, honest and raw way, a reality of our society. We think ourselves as modern, and still, we judge a person simply by race. Overall, its Oscar for Best Motion Picture was well-earned.
Film Info - Country: US
directed by: Paul Haggis
screenplay by: Paul Haggis
Bobby Moresco
running time: 112 minutes
rating : 8.2 / 10
by Pedro Guilherme Cortez, 11º H
