Song Lyric of the Day:
Thought you had all the answers / To rest your heart upon / But something happens / Don’t see it coming, now / You can’t stop yourself
Bird York / “In the Deep”
9:43PM.
Rich has been giving me daily updates from the new home front. I’m enjoying hearing how Snoops and Caleb are exploring and adjusting, and I can’t wait to see what Rich has accomplished while I’ve been gone. You can check out the Honey Do list I gave him on his blog. (BTW, nice move posting that, honey). I look forward to checking many items off the list once I’m home.
This week is my social catch-up-with-friends-I-didn’t get-to-see-before-moving-to-Tennessee-and-would-like-to-see-before-I-go-for-good week. I’m trying to squeeze as many in as I can between now and Saturday night.
Catherine picked me up last night and treated me to dinner at Chili’s. We had fun catching up and reminiscing about the good old days when we worked together and were cubemates. It came naturally that our friendship continued after we both went on to work for different companies. I have no doubt that we will continue to stay in touch, and we are both looking forward to her visiting me in Tennessee this fall.
After dinner we went to see the movie “Crash.” All I can say is, “Wow.”
The movie kicks off with, what else, a car crash. A black L.A.P.D. detective (Don Cheadle) comments how L.A. is such a car culture that maybe violent collisions are the only way left for people to truly feel anything anymore. His Latina partner (Jennifer Esposito) immediately gets into a confrontation with the Asian woman who hit them. And right from that first scene, the movie’s themes of racism, racial and class stereotyping, and intolerance are established. The result was a feeling of discomfort I haven’t felt during a movie in a very, very long time. And that feeling pretty much stayed with me throughout the whole film.
The movie is a true ensemble piece (a la “Traffic“), with incredibly diverse characters whose lives you never expect to cross paths but end up intertwining in the most unexpected, tragic sorts of ways.
A white District Attorney, Rick (Brendan Fraser), and his wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), are carjacked by two young black men, Anthony (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges) and Peter (Larenz Tate).
Cameron (Terrence Howard), a successful black TV director, and his wife, Christine (Thandie Newton), are pulled over and violated by white L.A.P.D. Officer Ryan (Matt Dillon) while his new partner, Officer Hanson (Ryan Phillippe), helplessly watches.
Daniel (Michael Pena), a Latino locksmith, is accused of being a thief by Farhad (Shaun Toub), a Persian shop owner; both are just trying to make an honest living.
Eventually, these characters’ stories all begin to interweave. The beauty of this film, written and directed by Paul Haggis, is that it provides a completely unflinching look at the prejudices we all deal with–the ones we have and the ones others have against us. The film never tries to rationalize whether what these people think is right or wrong; it merely shows us how their lives have shaped them, for better or for worse.
Do the characters find redemption? Do they forgive those who wronged or hurt them? Some do and some don’t. Some change for the better when they didn’t think–or know–they could, and others discover things about themselves they wish they hadn’t.
The director evokes wonderful performances out of the entire cast. Where to begin? Sandra Bullock proves she is much more than one of America’s film sweethearts, as a character who is brittle and heartbreaking all at once. Don Cheadle perfectly embodies a noble man trying to keep his moral compass in an increasingly immoral world. Michael Pena is all heart as a young father trying to provide for his family.
For me, a true standout scene involved Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton, when Officer Ryan and Christine’s paths once again cross in a most awful way. By the time their scene together was over, I had tears in my eyes; I think this is among the best work Matt Dillon has ever done.
I highly recommend “Crash.” But be prepared. Because by the time the movie is over, you may be dealing with the realization that you, too, sometimes judge a book by its cover. I know I did. And I can only hope that one day that changes. For all of us.
