Good things happen to bad people just as surely as bad things happen to good people. Then too, bad to bad and good to good.
In its simplest form, this is what Paul Haggis shows in his powerful racial drama Crash, a film as shocking and moving as it is articulate and insightful.
As he showed last year with his screenplay for Million Dollar Baby, Canadian-born Haggis is a master storyteller and a keen observer of human nature.
Every character in Crash bristles with raw energy and the acting is brave and flawless.
Crash is masterful, using the same technique as Robert Altman's Short Cuts, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon, weaving a tapestry out of separate stories.
It opens with Detective Graham (Don Cheadle) and his partner/lover Detective Ria (Jennifer Esposito) investigating a death.
Graham's eyes widen in disbelief and horror when he sees a piece of evidence and the movie returns to the preceding day to show the events leading up to this crime.
In one story, a cocky district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his bitter, abrasive wife (Sandra Bullock) have their expensive car stolen at gunpoint by two young, African Americans (rapper Chis 'Ludacris' Bridges and Larenz Tate).
While searching for the DA's stolen vehicle, a racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his idealistic young partner (Ryan Phillippe) stop a Hollywood director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) because they're black and driving a similar vehicle.
The dialogue is also unsettling, with Haggis' characters expressing sentiments most of us never want to hear, but know exist.
It's simultaneously shocking and riveting, but what makes this movie so mesmerizing is that it's never apparent where the actions of these characters will take us.
The performances in Crash are as dazzling and unpredictable as its plot.
Bullock has never allowed herself to be this unlikable. Her socialite is a bundle of frayed nerves with a vicious tongue.
Dillon has never been better, probably because no one thinks he's capable of portraying such ugly emotions with such blunt force. It's a performance which deserves an Oscar nomination.
Crash is the kind of film that lingers with the viewer long after the final credits roll
(This film is rated 14-A)
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