Crash

Watched 'Crash' recently and I must say I was depressed immediately after watching the movie. The movie itself was great I thought..amazing performances and slick story-telling. Although the movie rides mostly on these performances and editing, I felt the director held back a lot of things he wanted to say, but couldn't..for some reason. He leaves the movie saying racism exists..yeah, we know that, duh! Also, most sequences in the movie involve explaining to the audience that its misunderstanding which leads to racism. Interesting thought..
I've had my share of experiences, good and bad on this topic. Generally, I think that people exhibiting racism are the ignorant ones (this is my point of view, of course). Ignorance of being a part of the society which is a melting pot in a majority of cases. Of course, one may argue that its basically ignorance which usually leads to misunderstanding!

Coming to the part which I liked most about the movie, the performances. A near perfect cast for this movie, I would say. Director Paul Haggis must have been licking his lips at the prospect of directing actors like Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon and Terrence Howard. None of these actors disappoint. You hate them, pity them and only can try understanding them in this movie which aims to be a critique. Although there are some 'nice, goody' roles in the movie, the ones that stay with you are these 'bitchy, racist' ones..naturally. Matt Dillon effortlessly walks through his role as a racist cop who is later shown to be having a sensitive side as well. Cheadle has the most screen time with no particular reason, although the movie begins and ends with him on the receiving end of things. Bullock is at her 'maniacal' best..as the rich, angry, embarassed and actually humiliated wife of Fraser. Commendable. But none of these big names could match up with the performance of Terrence Howard as the black TV director. His portrayal of a man caught between accepting racism, dealing with it and coming close to losing his senses is in a way, magical. Howard mostly uses subtle body language and awesome intensity in his eyes. The director takes full advantage of this and uses it to generate maximum effect in the scene which has the showdown with the cops. Fiery scene!
Other performances worth mentioning include Michael Pena as the humiliated but extremely patient locksmith and Shaun Toub as the persian store owner. Bahar Soomekh, who is cast as his daughter is beautiful and embodies the young generation of today. Ludacris catches your eye in some scenes but fizzles out in an artificially made-up image makeover.

The one thing which might wear you down in this movie is the sheer number of coincidences popping up one after the other. I initially thought it was interesting and in a way, keeps you thinking..but after some time into the movie, you feel ridiculed. Come on..this is LA..are these the only people in the whole greater Los Angeles area??

It'll be interesting to see and hear others talking about this movie too..and their experiences watching it. For me, it was a movie in which performances ruled over the story, cinematography and music score..however honest an intention was to make the story a worthwhile one.