"Crash" unabashedly takes a painful look at the dangerous jagged edge of prejudice. Within the four walls of one of the United States' largest cities (Los Angeles) the film sets spinning several independent story lines each of which display an example of cultures clashing. White, Black, Asian, Latino, Middle-Eastern -- we watch as pre-judging has very inhuman and even fatal consequences.

It's rather obvious that the film is encouraging us to catch ourselves, monitor our own prejudices, temper our rush to judgment especially based on skin color. There also feels to be an element of Buddhist Karma circling the production and then an incident of Christian-like self-sacrifice. (Could the lawn Santa have been a symbol here?)

Tense, entertaining, and poignant -- the film is a worthwhile watch. However, an unusually high rate of coincidence robs it of some credibility as far as story goes and I personally was disappointed with the resolution of one of the five plot lines. That said, the other four story lines were beautifully written, interesting and integrated artfully. In some ways the film almost plays more as a myth, a parable, than a to-be-taken-literally screenplay. It reminded me just a tad of "Magnolia." A very strong B+.

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