Racism is not an easy subject to portray successfully on film, and is not exactly a cast-iron certainty to get bums on seats in the cinema either, still more if it happens to be glossed over with a Hollywood sheen. Crash, however, avoids most of these pitfalls, turning its subject matter into a study of human interaction on every level.

It helps that director Paul Haggis chooses Los Angeles as his base, as having lived there for 25 years he knows a thing or two about the city's dynamics. The ensemble cast list is high powered, but there's no main character as such. If one does emerge it's Don Cheadle's cop Graham, who often speaks volumes with just one look, a shrug of his immaculately suited shoulders. His partner Ria (Jennifer Esposito) and his mother perceive a lack of involvement on his part, but they miss keenly felt emotions bubbling beneath the surface, given as an aside to the audience.

A complex plot brings Cheadle an involvement in some way in the lives of each of the other characters. The film begins with a husband and wife (Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock) the victims of a carjacking from Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges (the token rapper!) and Larenz Tate, taking place in what Bridges terms "an area crowded with over-caffeinated white people".

The stunt goes wrong, conveniently scooping a Korean couple into the equation. Fraser and Bullock retire hurt, he preoccupied with saving a high flying reputation, her visibly scarred. To see Bullock acting in this way is a revelation, shedding her kooky image to play a permanently vexed character in an uneasy, listless state.

Meanwhile another cop (Matt Dillon) hangs on the edge with his own issues, on one side caring for his sick father, on the other showing extreme contempt and racial prejudice towards a nurse, and, in a disturbingly realistic scene, towards Thandie Newton's character Christine. These two meet later in a white-knuckle scene, their lives under threat, with Dillon forced to suddenly face himself. It's not a pretty sight, and he deserves great credit for a darkly menacing, unhinged performance. Dillon's co-driver cop is Ryan Phillippe, in for a rollercoaster ride himself as his boyish innocence makes a play on the viewer's sympathies. Ultimately, judgement has to be reserved.

If all this sounds confusing, it is somewhat, but that's life LA style - a confusing place! The class divide is more like a chasm between the top (Fraser) and towards the bottom (the excellent Bridges and Tate). What the film manages to depict is the fatal mistake of forming judgement far too readily, long before you yourself are ready to be judged. Haggis overdoes the racial tension theme at times, though - barely have we had a chance to register a new character sometimes before they sound off.

None of these characters has an easy ride, and none of them complete the story unscathed, be it physically or mentally. If you can stay with Haggis's rapid scene developments, at times too rapid, you'll experience a thought provoking film.

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