Crash (R) ê ê ê ê

Set in Los Angeles, with an obvious reference to the heavy traffic and frequent collisions on the freeways that crisscross the smoggy landscape, "Crash" is more a film about the human lives that intersect on the streets and the impact we have on each other. Where better to observe the emotions and the missteps than this city? Black and white, Latino, Persian, Arab, Asian, rich and poor, gathered together, ripe for miscommunication.

Paul Haggis, the writer of "Million Dollar Baby," is the first time film director of this remarkable story and stellar ensemble cast. Raw, heart-stopping events propel these characters forward, head-on into each other. And we, the audience, are like the real-life witnesses who gape at the wrecks along the highway¾ curious and repulsed at the same time.

Don Cheadle is an investigator, more embroiled in the lives of suspects and family than he can imagine. Jennifer Esposito is a colleague that he’s involved with, perhaps for questionable reasons. William Fichtner, a law enforcement type, offers Cheadle a deal he can’t refuse. Sandra Bullock, pissed-off and well to do, is generally rude to everyone and is tired of living in a city where she feels she’s in the minority. Brendan Fraser is her politician husband, who tries to make the best of it and remain on top.

Matt Dillon and Ryan Phillippe are two cops whose back-stories are keys to their on-duty performance. Their lives collide with Terrence Howard and Thandie Newton’s, who portray a beautiful Hollywood power couple, in an uneasy, tension-filled scene early in the film, as they suffer great professional and personal indignities when they are pulled over for being guilty of DWB (driving while black).

Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges give believable performances, spiked with humor, as two young black men, on the margins of society, who have chosen the easy way to fight for an economic foothold. Michael Peña is a young Latino father and husband, who runs his own locksmith business, and whose little girl allows us to believe in angels.

Lorretta Devine as a no-nonsense social worker, Shaun Toub as a Persian store owner, and Tony Danza as a TV executive round out the large supporting cast of this thought provoking film.

We lose our sense of touch, as we crash against each other yet never see, is the message of "Crash." We will add that life is complicated, even messy, and this film allows us to examine ourselves and our motives from a not entirely safe distance. We are drawn in.