- Film Review
- Reviewed By Karen Krizanovich
-
4 out of 5
Los Angeles provides the setting for writer/director Paul Haggis's finely tuned ensemble drama about interconnected lives, which was the surprise winner of the 2005 best picture Oscar. Like Short Cuts and Magnolia, Haggis's film ambitiously weaves several narrative strands into a short time frame - in this case, just 36 hours. Here, as the title suggests, the characters are brought together by a series of violent collisions and close encounters. Among them are a racist cop (Matt Dillon), a TV director's highly strung wife (Thandie Newton), a detective dogged by serious family problems (Don Cheadle) and two car-jacking victims (Sandra Bullock and Brendan Fraser). Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco - who picked up an Academy Award for their screenplay - have created a raft of fully developed characters, linked by chance, criminal acts and simmering racial tensions. As events (both kind and cruel) unfold, even the most seasoned movie-goer will find something here to surprise - and shock.
Plot Summary
Oscar-winning ensemble drama directed by the screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby, starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon. The lives of an apparently unconnected group of people in Los Angeles are altered irrevocably by a series of random but highly eventful incidents.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Jean
- Sandra Bullock
- Graham Walters
- Don Cheadle
- Officer Ryan
- Matt Dillon
- Ria
- Jennifer Esposito
- Flanagan
- William Fichtner
- Rick
- Brendan Fraser
- Cameron
- Terrence Howard
- Anthony
- Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
- Christine
- Thandie Newton
- Officer Hansen
- Ryan Phillippe
- Peter
- Larenz Tate
- Karen
- Nona Gaye
- Lieutenant Dixon
- Keith David
- Fred
- Tony Danza
- Park
- Daniel Dae Kim
- Shereen
- Marina Sirtis
Crew
- Director
- Paul Haggis
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