Writer/Director Paul Haggis, an overnight success by Hollywood standards, for his Oscar script “Million Dollar Baby” brings us “Crash”, told in vignettes, about racism and elitism in America. Five seconds into the movie, only a couple lines of well-delivered dialog, from a Detective (Don Cheadle) and you know you are on a highly intelligent ride, inclusive of dramatic turns and unexpected collisions, as we intersect into many lives, on the L. A. freeways. Matt Dillion is a racist cop with too many exhausted years on the LAPD. Terrence Dashon Howard is a Television director on his way home from an upscale event, with his lovely wife, Thandie Newton, when they are pulled over by Dillon, who frames them for a stolen SUV. The real car thief is brilliantly played by rapper Ludacris (debut performance) who has just car-jacked the vehicle of the District Attorney, Brendan Fraser and his wife, a spoiled and bitchy Sandra Bullock. And then there’s more. There’s the hardworking Latino locksmith, Larenz Tate, just minding his business. There’s a Persian shopkeeper, Michael Pena, mistaken for an Iranian, and a young Ryan Phillipe as the rookie cop, afraid to speak up. This is our world today. This is what we’ve become. And while the story spans 48 hours in the lives of these people, we feel we’ve met these tortured souls, all wrestling with not only their inner demons, but with bigotry and social status, as they crash through lives, that add up to a lot more than just some broken headlights, airbags and twisted metal. One of the year’s best must-not-be-missed movies.
