Crash

Ian and I went to go see Crash this weekend. I was pretty disappointed. It's basically a Magnolia rip-off that revolves around racial tensions. It even ends with something falling from the sky with a male version of an Aimee Mann song playing in the background. Instead of frogs falling, though, it's the just-as-unlikely snow falling in L.A.

Initially, I liked the commentary about race relations--really in-your-face. But the ending just ruined it for me. WARNING: spoilers ahead. Anyways, everything turns out well for most of the cast (except for Don Cheadle's character and his family**). The hispanic family survives a shooting. The Persian father actually shoots blanks at the little girl, so she doesn't die. The Persian daughter bought the blanks (intentionally or unintentionally, we never find out). The black woman who is brutalized and raped by the racist policeman in a cheesy and unrealistic turn of events has her life saved by said policeman. Her husband starts working out his ideas of being black. The white rich woman, who has verbally harassassed and abused her hispanic maid, ends up hugging said maid and telling her that she's the best friend that she has at the end. Her husband, who we assume is having an affair, forgoes his tryst to go home to his wife. The black teenage hood, who carjacks only white people, ends up with a van full of non-descript Asians who were headed for American slavery--he frees them and gives them the $40 in his pocket. Did I forget anyone?

For a movie that started out so realistically and so brutally honest about race relations and human relations, it really fell apart at the end. Maybe it was supposed to be uplifting. But if that's so, why was 3/4 of the movie so damn depressing? I didn't dislike the whole movie. In fact, I really liked most of it...it's just that the ending totally ruined it for me. Maybe my expectations that continuity is important in a movie, book, etc. are too high.

So, see it for yourself, but see Magnolia first. I think you'll be surpised at the similarities.

**Don Cheadle's character and family also irritated me. The movie really tried to address stereotypes and how those stereotypes are just people-constructed ideas. But Don Cheadle's brother is the only one to die in the movie (he was the other young, black carjacker)--and very violently, at that. And his mom is a crack addict. They are the only ones to not break the "stereotypes" that the movie sets up for each character. I find it rather disturbing that all of the other characters were able to break stereotypes in one way or another, but this poor black family was not.