These type of movies that follow multiple different story lines and
characters simultaneously can work out great but I don't really see
this movie as a good and successful example of the genre.
Problem really is with its story. You could say that the movie is
commenting on racism but to me it more was a movie about stupid people,
doing stupid things, no matter what their ethnicity is. It besides
tries to do and tell too much, in a too short amount of time, with as a
result that the ending of the movie feels rushed and totally
unsatisfying. Seriously, how are exactly all of the story lines
resolved at the end? And how are some of the characters redeemed? The
movie leaves an incredible amount of loose ends, with both its story
lines and characters. In this particular case I wouldn't had minded
seeing this movie being about one hour longer.
Most of the actions by all of the characters are besides some very
unlikely ones. The movie does a poor job, building up to certain things
and not all of the character's actions are explained well enough or
make much sense. Sometimes stuff just happens, to add to the overall
drama of the movie. It lets the movie feel forced instead of realistic,
while this obviously still was the approach that the film-makers were
aiming for.
It's not like I'm hating the movie but just too many things about it
failed to work out to let me see this as a great or successful movie,
at what it tried to achieve. It still remains a watchable enough little
movie, also since it's never boring and always on the move. There is
plenty happening, though not everything got handled equally great or
interesting enough.
You could of course also still watch it for its acting. It has an all
star cast in it, with maybe not the biggest names but still some well
known and respected actors in it. Some of them impress, while others
get pushed to the background too easily. I particularly liked Matt
Dillon and Don Cheadle in their roles, while Sandra Bullock for
instance got pushed way too much to the background.
Something that I thought was absolutely dreadful about the movie was
its musical score by Mark Isham. It totally didn't suited the movie and
was even kind of distracting at times.
Not a great movie and it even somewhat annoyed me with the way it was
handling some of its developments and characters but it still remains
far from a horrible movie as well and is actually still pretty
watchable. Who knows, changes are you might even end up loving it,
since the movie has a pretty good overall reputation and even won the
Oscar for best picture, back in 2006.
6/10
Watch trailer
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