Crash

MPAA Rating: R

Entertainment: +2 1/2

Content: -3

This drama tries to take on racial discrimination. After opening with a car crash, the story flashes back to the lives of each person involved in the crash. Jean (Sandra Bullock), the wife of wealthy Brentwood District Attorney (Brendan Fraser), trusts and respects nobody who does not have white skin and a middle-class-or-higher income, but the crash causes her to face the reality of her anger and her lack of intimate relationships. The wife of a TV director learns to forgive and to offer grace when she receives critical help from a police officer (Matt Dillon) who sexually molested her only 24 hours earlier, simply because he viewed her as a lowly black woman. In contrast, Officer Hanson (Ryan Phillippe) appears to be culturally sensitive and respectful of all people until he finds himself facing death. Unknown connections in these intertwined lives are not revealed until the end.

Crash, which portrays a society filled with hate, makes a good attempt to lead viewers to ponder their own prejudicial inadequacies. Whether outwardly critical of people who are different or discretely prejudiced, viewers will find at least one character with whom to identify. While this takes place during the Christmas season, nobody has a kind and caring spirit as is often associated with the season. The film is filled with harsh language and violence, but it offers a solution to racial hatred - grace and forgiveness. One woman offers undeserved grace to the man who molested her. Though grace and forgiveness are encouraged, the film makes no attempt to attribute ultimate grace to God. Due to a sex scene and many violent acts and obscenities, Preview cannot recommend this film.

Preview Reviewer: Peggy Misura
Distributor: Lion's Gate

Summary
The following categories contain objective listings of film content which contribute to the subjective numeric Content ratings posted to the left and on the Home page.

Crude Language: Several (8) times - mild (hell 2); strong (-ss 5, SOB 1)

Obscene Language: Many (74) times - moderate (p-ss 5); strong (f-word 63, s-word 4, pr-ck 2)

Profanity: Several (8) times - strong (GD 3, J 2, C 2, C-sake)

Violence: Many times - mild (two people argue over who's at fault for a car crash, woman yells at maid for not putting dishes away, a mother blames her son for her other son's death, a thief expresses anger toward white people saying "The only reason they put windows on buses is to humble people of color who have to ride them," a telephone conversation is cut short when a white man does not respect an African-American woman based on her race); moderate (a woman is sexually molested by a police officer along the road after she and her husband are pulled over, a man is stuck to the bottom of a moving car, man is thrown to the ground, a man shoots at another man and his little girl); strong (man kills another man and falsely calls it self-defense, a man is shown after being shot)

Sex: Few times - moderate (a man and woman have sexual intercourse but are draped by sheets)

Nudity: Few times - mild (camera shows clothed upper body of a man sitting on the toilet); moderate (woman's breast shown briefly during sex scene between a man and woman)

Sexual Dialogue/Gesture: Few times - strong (a man sexually molests a woman)

Drugs: Few times - mild (cigarette smoking, a woman is obviously drunk); strong (drug trafficking, apparent use of drugs)

Other: Several (7) uses of the n-word

Running Time: 100 minutes
Intended Audience: Adults

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