Crash

Reminded by a friend, Chani and I saw Crash last night. From what I’d previously seen in reviews, I fully expected it to be a great movie and it lived up to that billing (it's the directorial debut from the writer of 'Million Dollar Baby'). Though presently #2 at the box office, it’s not your typical slick Hollywood screenplay, but rather a raw yet rich, layered story about real life that makes you think and better appreciate life’s complexities from a wide-angled perspective of many disparate and distinct characters.

It also had a deep nostalgic effect, reminding us of our former home, the City of Angels, and its rich melting pots bound to its many concrete jungles with people of all stripes and economic strata. Persuasively drives home the fundamental premise that, regardless of culture, skin color, and other markers that mainstream society chooses to tag on, at the end people are just people.

MSN's Movie summary says:

A Brentwood housewife and her DA husband… a Persian store owner… two police detectives, who are also lovers… an African-American television director and his wife… a Mexican locksmith… two car-jackers… a rookie cop… a middle-aged Korean couple…they all live in Los Angeles. And, during the next 36 hours, they will all collide… 'Crash' takes a provocative, unflinching look at the complexities racial tolerance in contemporary America. Diving headlong into the melting pot of post-9/11 Los Angeles, this urban drama tracks the volatile intersections of multi-ethnic characters as they struggle to overcome their fears while careening in and out of one another's lives. In the gray area between black and white, victim and aggressor, there are no easy answers.

You can also find an MSBNC movie review, "Ambitious Crash is a Stimulating Drama", here.