Crash

4 Stars

R, 113 minutes. Now playing at South Wind 12

Great movies linger with us after the lights dim and the credits roll as we leave the theater and go out for coffee afterward to discuss what was just seen with a friend who you saw it with. Crash is a perfect example of that kind of movie. It features more than a dozen people strung together through coincidence. These characters have nothing in common with each other — they have different jobs, live in different parts of town and are part of different social classes. But one thing is similar: They all feel separated by their races.

Crash does not have a central plot, and it’s made up of several smaller plots that mingle every now and then. Some of the plots and characters work better than others: A pair of black thieves (Terrance Howard, Ludacris) carjack the SUV of a white couple (Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser); two cops (Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe) pull over and harass a black couple because one of the cops mistakenly thinks its occupants (Larenz Tate, Thandie Newton) for an interracial couple; two police detectives (Don Cheadle, Jennifer Esposito) investigate a shooting death between white and black undercover police officers; a Persian shopkeeper (Shaun Toub) buys a gun and keeps being mistaken for “Osama.”

One of the most interesting things about this movie is that it presents its characters as flawed, most all are racist on some level, but that they came to be that way through circumstances beyond their control and can still be decent human beings. One character in particular is first presented as a total scumbag, but the audience is forced to re-evaluate him after an act of heroism. All of the performances are excellent, particularly Cheadle, Dillon and Newton. Though some characters and coincidences are a little too much, the payoff is a thought-provoking movie that stays with you.

—Jon Ralston