MOVIE REVIEW: Crash

As Crash begins, people of Hispanic, Korean, African, Caucasian, and Middle-Eastern descent verbally tear holes in each other—a Martian could pick up on the racial tension.

Crash is writer/director Paul Haggis’ attempt at a candid exposition of L.A. race relations—an ambitious project for a white Canadian’s directorial debut, even an Oscar-nominated one (Million Dollar Baby).

In the tradition of Magnolia and Traffic, Crash’s has a wide breadth of scope: instead of focusing on a single larger story, Crash tells a number of interconnected stories, of which none is clearly dominant.

The stories themselves vary wildly in terms of quality. While some are heartfelt and insightful, others come across as poorly conceived and unduly stereotypical. Jean’s (Sandra Bullock) maid, for instance, speaks English but lapses into Spanish for basic words the gringo audience will be able to understand: words like “sí” and “señora”. This particular subplot’s conclusion has lily-white Jean learn to appreciate her helpful Mexican servant with an insipid, cringe-worthy character reversal that basically materializes out of thin air.

Another misfire is the narrative thread about Iranian convenience store owner Farhad and a Hispanic locksmith. The subplot about Daniel the locksmith (Michael Peña) initially seems promising. After stoically listening to Jean’s racial slurs, Daniel returns home to comfort his daughter after she imagines hearing a gunshot, in a scene that, surprisingly, manages to be touching without being sentimental.

Unfortunately, it’s downhill from there. While Farhad (Shaun Toub) is sympathetic for his familial tenderness, a scene in which he attempts to purchase a firearm reveals his detached instability. Farhad becomes progressively more unhinged as he makes unreasonable demands of Daniel after hiring him.

The climax of their interaction is too dramatic for its own good: Farhad’s bewildering decision to kill Daniel is foiled when Daniel’s pre-school-aged daughter literally takes the bullet for her father, complete with a slo-mo Platoon-style wail of anguish on Peña’s part.

With more exposition and development, it’s possible that Farhad’s murderous instinct could have been rounder or that the near murder of a little girl could have been less hammy. This incarnation is so awkward that what should be very moving borders on comical; it’s one step away from the Dr. Evil cry when the steamroller is across the room in Austin Powers.

Haggis, assuming the burden of the panorama of American ethnic tensions, needs his perfunctory Muslim character. And I guess they had to do something with Sandra Bullock after they cast her. Still, one wonders if the movie might not be better without the half-baked story lines of Farhad and Jean.

Fortunately (and predictably) the more developed plots turn out considerably better. Graham (Don Cheadle) threatens to be pious when a District Attorney (Brendan Fraser) offers to help his delinquent younger brother Peter (Larenz Tate) in exchange for covering up evidence that exculpates a racist cop. Impressively, this tragic family story is delivered with understanding and humanity.

The narrative trajectories of a novice, racially-sensitive white cop (Ryan Phillippe) and an affluent, light-skinned black woman (Thandie Newton) asks hard questions about the nature of modern American racism—silent but virulent.

Haggis knows how to spin a heart-rending story, and some of Crash’s story lines do pack an emotional wallop. However, the premise of an honest survey of race relations in a hotbed of global diaspora like Los Angeles is a high-reaching goal that Crash fails to achieve.

A nuanced understanding of race in L.A. is more than once sacrificed for no-punches-pulled melodrama or a hackneyed moral lesson. Where it does well, it does pretty damn well, but mostly, its idealized ambition is too big for its britches.