FILM REVIEW: Crash

"Well made, interesting premise -- but execution falls flat."

This movie always appealed to me because critics said it was "gross" and I like Cronenberg and James Spader. Crash has been derided for gratuitous sexuality and the lack of a conventional story arc. But beneath the "repelling" qualities is a compelling movie that sadly suffers from a few artistic excesses that hurt the experience. This film is definitely unusual and weirdly fascinating (and certainly disturbing at times). The amort color scheme (think noirish and dreamy) augments the passionless nature of the characters, who are deliberately acted with a lack of emotion, with sparse dialogue. The gloomy soundtrack is good as well. These qualities are all effective, as they accentuates the unhappy nature of the characters.

This is a strange, sad flick about a group of people who cannot experience pleasure, and find ways to vicariously heighten their zest by enjoying a unique fetish revolving around bloody car accidents. These neurotic people try and rationalize their woeful lives, but by the film's end it becomes clear that they cannot be truly liberated from their distressed condition. Note how the (many) sex scenes are not remotely titillating, because the characters engage them in such a torpid manner. Even the car accidents are calm little smashes. Thematically, the film asks what gives us pleasure, and where is the line between pleasure and pain?

While it's interesting to ponder, in the end I was left with more of a love-hate feeling. The film waxes the artsy elements a too much and feels boring and redundant. Beating a dead horse is no fun, and there's many scenes that just seem to repeat each other. There is a lack of development and causes me to lose interest. About half of it is genuinely effective, but the rest is plodding. I know that's the point, but I think some more attentive work could have made it more effective in the end.