Crash is a brilliant tale of the hidden or not so hidden racism in Los Angeles. Vehicles are used as a metaphor for racism as Don Cheadle muses that “I think we miss touch so much that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something”.

The lives of a group of people made up of Caucasians, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Middle-Easterners plays out as a kind of six degrees of separation painting a picture of the grey area of racial tolerance.

To spell it out in words is a bit difficult and I’m still working on a flowchart to display the complex relationships. I’ll post this when I’m done with it.

The story is at times extremely discomforting, particularly when white cop Matt Dillon pulls over and harasses African American couple Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton (who by the way seemed painfully thin in this movie) and others extremely sweet.

I think what really gives the film its value is not treating each character either good or evil. Instead the film is able to present human beings as they are – complex individuals capable of the best and the worst.

The final scene, of a freak night time snowfall in historically sunny LA is the only clear-cut case of black and white.

Definitely a movie I’d recommend. It will have you thinking about it long after the credits have finished rolling.