Crash (1996)

Starring - James Spader; Holly Hunter; Elias Koteas; Deborah Unger & Rosanna Arquette Director - David Cronenberg MPAA - Rated NC-17 for numerous explicit sex scenes. Strange, disturbing, and weird are all words that would make apt descriptions of Crash. Simply put, Crash is a movie about people who become sexually aroused over car crashes. Both being a participant in them, and even viewing such carnage is a turn on. James Spader stars as a man who has a very open relationship with his wife (Deborah Kara Unger). They share stories of their extra marital sexual exploits with each other as a way of turning the other on. Nice. Anyway, good old James Spader is driving down the highway and loses control of his car, running into a car carrying Holly Hunter and her husband. The result sends Hunter and Spader's characters to the hospital and the husband to the graveyard. Both Hunter and Spader suffer crippling injuries but one thing leads to another and they end up meeting and having sex in the back of a car. Sure, makes sense to me. Every woman would just rush right out and do the nasty with the guy that just killed her husband. I might add that this is the point were the movie completely lost me. Hunter draws Spader into a world populated by weirdoes who get off on watching car wrecks and who seem to enjoy the pain associated with these car crashes. Especially if the injuries sustained are permanent. Spader brings wifey along for the ride too, and it just keeps getting stranger and stranger. The only way to sum up the plot of this movie is that most people will want to stop watching it before the halfway point. Those that actually make it through the whole movie will be left shaking their heads. The acting is, I guess, what you would call decent. To be honest, the whole thing is just so weird it was really hard to tell. One standout in this otherwise cave of weirdness is Deborah Kara Unger, who purrs her way through her dialogue. While Unger may not qualify as drop dead gorgeous, she certainly has the exotic good looks to cause a traffic accident. (Sorry, bad joke.) In all seriousness, she was, at least for this male reviewer, the high point of the movie. Which compared to the rest of this film, isn't exactly a big feat. Crash is not for the easily offended. Actually, Crash might even offend the not so easily offended. At the very least, it will leave you scratching your head. Not so much at the fact that people would get sexual gratification at a car crash. We all know that the world is filled with weirdoes. What you will be left scratching your head over is the fact that somebody would actually make a movie about this subject matter. Director David Cronenberg leaves little doubt in my mind that he is now the undisputed king of strange movies. Here's a piece of advice Dave. I think it's time for you to change careers. Hopefully your new one will keep you far away from movies -- making theaters a lot safer for everyone. 5/10 - And the only reason that I'm rating it so high is for the "wow, what the heck were they thinking" factor. Reviewed July 5, 1998 by Joe Chamberlain