Don Cheadle leads an all star cast that performs in this film about the life and times of the Los Angeles melting pot. Joining him are an ensemble worthy of any A List director's dream; Brandon Fraser, Sandra Bullock, Thandie Newton, Ryan Phillipe, Matt Dillon, Larenz Tate, Ludacris, Jennifer Esposito and others. Within this stellar cast, one must congratulate Ludacris for his acting ability. He manages to hold his own against established actors.

Crash has this embittering thread run through it: Los Angeles' milieu is racist and as such dangerous, painful and unpredictable. The LAPD, the District Attorney's office, car hijackers, store owners and filmmakers all face human issues that bring them into close and uncomfortable brushes with racial stereotypes that determine the quality of their lives.

The DA hires a black man because they need an affirmative action face, white LAPD cops assault a black couple far worse than happened to Rodney King, a white housewife fears non whites and changes her door locks as often as everyday, and we see and feel the effects of that the post 9-11 Amercan politics have had on her citizens and how they understand Arabs and Persians. This is all done to the tune of extreme emotional trauma.

This film is damn good, it is so good that it is pure screenplay.  Every word, every action is so well calculated that it makes for good watching. The problem with films that study the 'human cause' while advocating virtue is that they become extraordinarily conincidental..

Hagis adopts the common thread movement with a cyclical narrative that makes the first scene also the last one as if the audience member has to be force fed about the effects of the films theme.  Usually cyclical films work to establish a cause and effect by showing the effect first and delving into the cause and back to the effect. But all this does is dull the enthusiasm that the film has built up.

But it must be said that there is a fantasy story in this film that is the best I have seen in any live action film ever! Watch the film and see how a father protects her daughter. It's mind blowing.  It is jaw dropping heart stopping emotion.

Overall the film manages to tell us a lot about the Los Angeles race politics in such a deep manner that it is very poignant for south african audiences.

Don Cheadle is producer, Paul Hagis director and they have done well. This is the second film on my Top Ten films of 2005.

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Review by Phiwa Sukumane

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