Crashing (2007) User Reviews

A well written film about writing; not a comedy but it is funny.

[napierslogs · 7/10 · 29 May 2011]

An example of mis-marketing just to make it seem more appealing to the popular audience, but completely misses the point of what makes "Crashing" so good. This is not a comedy about the sexual misadventures of a middle-aged man and two sexy co-eds. This is a funny, smart, well written film about writing.

The art of writing, the love of writing, the craziness of writing, or the fantasies of writing are all that you can say this is about. A once successful writer is now mired in a personal downward spiral, but finds himself crashing on the couch of two sexy college students. They want him to guide them in their own writing, and he wants to use them to inspire him back to great writing. And here is where we get into semantics. Is he using them to get into their pants? Is he using them to steal their ideas? Or is he merely using the idea of them? And is that "using" them?

Depending on how you view this film, he could be doing any or all of the above. Some of his actions are a little immoral, but he really is doing it all for the writing. Which we get a lot of advice on. It takes an awfully ambitious writer to write a movie about writing, and for the most part, I think they succeeded with "Crashing".

A film which is primarily shot in one location with three actors, a lot of the action occurs in his head. But this is well enough written that that works. Because the sexual tension, that is real. And funny. And clever. And "over-intellectualized". Did I mention this was a film about writing by writers for writers?

A film that actually makes the act of writing interesting to watch and experience

[MBunge · 7/10 · 16 August 2011]

Crashing has to be one of the best movies ever made about writing. Not about being a writer, but about the act and even compulsion of writing itself. It wraps you up in the creative process and drenches you in the inspiration and perspiration of success. Anchored by the slyly ingratiating performance of Campbell Scott, this is a gossamer delight.

Richard McMurray (Campbell Scott) is a writer. As he was entering middle age, he wrote a commercial and critical smash hit called "The Trouble With Dick". Now about to leave middle age, Richard has been struggling with his second book for years. It's not that he's blocked and can't write, it's that every word he puts on the page sucks. Richard might have stewed in his stagnant juices forever but his Hollywood actress locks him out of their Malibu home, something he assumes is her way of asking for a divorce.

Seemingly unfazed by it all, Richard walks away with nothing but a suitcase. The unfinished second novel remains behind on the computer in his now former home. He goes directly to keep a promise to speak to a college writing class taught by his old flame Diane (Alex Kingston), where Richard promptly spills his guts to the students about being tossed out with no where to sleep that night. A beautiful young student named Kristen (Izabella Miko) offers to let Richard crash on the couch in the apartment she shares with her roommate Jacqueline (Lizzy Caplan).

As a lark, Richard accepts their offer. Once he's ensconced on their living room couch, though, something happens. Richard watches the girls, he looks at the evidence of their lives, and his smothered creative spark starts to smolder again. He asks the girls if he can stay and they agree, as long as Richard helps them with their own writing. What follows that is a marvelous, smart and funny weave of the girls' stories brought to life, Richard's life in the girls apartment and Richard's version of the girls and his life in their apartment that he's writing down on a yellow legal pad.

This charming mix of fantasy, reality and fantasy modeled after reality is held together by Scott's exquisitely subdued and detached acting. He presents us with a writer who's a bit different than what we usually encounter in fiction. He's committed but not tormented by writing. Richard has given himself over so completely to his art that almost everything he thinks and feels is in service to it. He's not filled with self-pity or self-loathing or anger or frustration, just a quiet determination to get the word right. Richard takes everything that exists between him and the girls and focuses it not on them or himself but on the writing. Richard McMurray is a guy who writes because he can't do anything else and doesn't want to.

This film is also a great introduction to the craft of storytelling. First in the way Richard critiques the girls' writing, identifying the fundamental issues within and pushing them to improve, and then in the way we see Richard writing the story of his time with the girls, imagining it one way and then the other, always looking for the best and truest fiction he can conjure. If you've ever tried to be or thought about being a writer, watching Crashing will make you want to pick up the pen or sit down at the keyboard and try again.

Now, the whole mixing of real and pretend and the pretend version of what's real gets slightly precious toward the end of the movie, but it ends before it gets that bad. And this is not a film with a lot of plot or big emotional scenes. What Crashing does is take you into the life of another person and make you understand why he lives that way, while simultaneously giving you a taste of the trial and challenge a writer faces trying to create new worlds out of thin air. I had a really good time watching this movie and I think a lot of other people would too.

Clever witty dramedy that includes accurate writing tips

[missrri · 7/10 · 14 July 2016]

This small-budget independent film requires multiple views, because the plot seems different with every watch. At first, the film seems like a middle-aged author- professor's sexual fantasy - living in an apartment with two 19-year-old attractive female students who are open to all experiences (drugs, casual sex etc.). Then, on second thought, the film proves to be intellectually stimulating for it provides the watchers not merely a man's schoolgirl fantasy, but it provides some free-of-charge very accurate and very helpful tips on creative fiction writing and novel writing - the kind you pick up in writing classes. After watching it a couple of times, the film grows on you in terms of plot presentation technique and character development, and you accept the gratuitous writing advice wrapped up in a man's one-week sexual odyssey.

What's even more clever about this film's scenario is the fact that Richard (Campbell Scott) ends up in his ultimate fantasy without him actually provoking it per se. He merely accepts the invitation of crashing on a couch, without sending off signals about being sexually attracted to the female students, and yet, they are the ones who pursue him and make a pass at him. Thus, the film implies Richard's sexual quest to be Kristen's and Jacqueline's choice, not his. He merely plays along on the 'song' chosen by the two young women. His advances towards another female character at the beginning of the film proving unsuccessful, he ceases to emanate availability, but things actually turn in his favour without his deliberate efforts.

Campbell Scott acts marvellously in the role of egocentric author and occasional writing professor Richard McMurray, and he adds the right amount of seduction, humour and quirkiness to the character. He might, as well, have told Diane: ''I was there, just minding my own writing, when these two started sleeping with me.'' The comedy of the situation is nicely dealt with by a cool and self-controlled Campbell Scott who, apart from occasional mishaps, always says the right things and the right double-meaning advice at the right time, without ever turning into an old perv who gets what he wants out of every situation.

This is a middle aged man's fantasy about two sexy coeds.

[ericl-3 · 4/10 · 28 January 2007]

This is a middle aged man's fantasy about two sexy coeds. Richard, a middle aged man played by Campbell Scott, is thrown out of his palatial LA mansion by his movie star girlfriend, and is forced to move in with two sexy college students.

The acting is good, however the script is entirely predictable. Richard gets exactly what he wants out of every situation, although he's intellectual enough to keep from looking like a tired old letch. Good for him. This is one of those independent films that thespians do to pay the rent and get some "intellectual" credits between TV guest appearances and Horror movies. This is going to wind up on an obscure cable channel and never be seen again.

Crashing

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 4 February 2011]

A down-on-his-luck novelist, Richard McMurray(Campbell Scott, ROGER DODGER; THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS)is kicked out of his house and needs a place to crash, and two young lovelies—college students who admire his work and want to be writers in their own right—offer him the coach in their apartment. Soon he's sleeping with both of them, and finds a muse for his new novel idea—they will furnish the details he needs, and Dick will become inspired by their daily activities, creating characters and scenarios based somewhat closely related to them. The ultimate male-fantasy of being middle-aged and having 20 year old sexpot admirers adoring you, wanting you to help them grow as authors, critiquing their stories in exchange for a roof over his head—and a little extra something-something, as well—is elaborated, while CRASHING also works as a satire on one man's resurgence creatively thanks to two girls who open that locked mental gate that needed a special key they had in their possession. The two girls are played by Izabella Miko (THE FORSAKEN) & Lizzy Caplan (THE HOUSE BUNNY) who fit the perfect profile of the kind of girls who would spark a zing and a zang in an older man needing desperately to recover from a creative quagmire which has his imagination muzzled. Caplan has a little more zest and snap than Miko(as Kristen) who is basic surface sensuality, her Jacqueline more unpredictable, egotistical, and empowered(Caplan's Jacqueline also has more of an writer's voice, and artistic language than her roommate and best friend). I still felt the three play off each other well, although I imagine the thought of two twenty-somethings rolling around in the bed and talking all sexy-sexy to a much older man might give some viewers the willies. I do think this is definitely a movie about the writing process, recovering what you lost, your creative energies jumpstarted thanks to unusual events such as sleeping on the couch of two college girls' apartment, ultimately revived by them.

This is much more than a middle-aged man's fantasy about two sexy coeds

[matlot · 10/10 · 26 December 2008]

This film is nothing less than a master-class in writing fiction. I quite understand the previous commentator's negative review; and I can see that this film will appeal to a very limited audience. If you have any interest at all in the craft of writing, particularly in the struggle to represent the human condition in words, then this is definitely the film for you. If not, it isn't. I would like to leave the review there, nothing further needs to be said. However, reviews must be at least 10 lines so I'll simply point this out: film-makers with the courage to tackle specialised subjects that will not appeal to mainstream audiences must be supported if we are to avoid CGI mediocrity. Give this superbly acted gem a chance!

About the dilemma of living life, or simulating life (9/10)

[mcravener · 9/10 · 17 May 2009]

Geez it's been a while since I've written a review but I've been in a rut seeing action-prison-bad-guy-does-good genre flicks that usually end up boring me after 20 minutes. The last film that actually amused me was the latest Star Trek (2009). It's been a dry spell when it comes to movies that go beyond face value - I kid you not...

Crashing (2007) had me interested from the starting credit music - a quirky, sparse little woodwind theme that would be repeated throughout the film.

The film is about a the travails of a writer, Richard McMurray (Campbell Scott) stumbling over himself and the roadblock of first novel success. Comfortable, complacent and frustrated by eternally trying to repeat the formula of his first book.

Richard's life gets ripped apart when his wife kicks him out of the house and freezes his bank accounts. At a creative writing presentation he tells of his writer's block and new sense of heady liberation due to circumstances beyond his control, and gets invited to crash at the apartment of a female student. And so Richard ends up sleeping on the couch of coeds Kristen and Jacqueline, provided that he critiques their own writing endeavors.

Much credit to Izabella Miko and Lizzy Caplan, who nicely contrast each other as the muse twins of dark and light. I've been a fan of Campbell Scott since Roger Dodger (2002) and here he is just as amusingly self-deprecating.

It's an engrossing movie that will pull you in as the author and two young girls intertwine in life and in fiction.

It feeds the creative soul

[dudespell · 10/10 · 27 December 2008]

A handsome middle aged man and two beautiful young women just came to live together, all three striving to picture a book character of each other, in a tense but fresh relationship for all involved.

The body nudity was replaced by some embarrassing conversation and the sex was replaced by invasion into personal space, and everything happens in a light mood.

So, don't expect "Crashing" to be a movie for your sexual hormones or your fears, it isn't for your brain either, if you are a writer or do any other form of creative work it will be 75 minutes of pleasure.

The original music fits perfectly and the acting is good.

reasonably good

[mattkratz · 8/10 · 9 August 2013]

Don't expect a classic, just a good comedy/drama with a good ensemble cast. This movie about a writer who gets thrown out by his wife gets taken in by two female students after lecturing their class and winds up getting the inspiration for his new novel (after a severe case of writer's block) by snooping around in their email accounts and apartment. The fantasy scenes were hilarious, and I loved the opening parts where he learns he's been kicked out and the next scene with the class. The writer and two ladies work well together, and it's a movie about getting inspiration off each other, as he inspires them to write, too. Not a bad movie if you have time to kill. I liked it and you might too.

*** out of ****

Intriguing

[RNMorton · 9/10 · 15 August 2009]

Caution - heavy spoiler. I'm not entirely sure what happened in this movie but was engaged nonetheless. Scott plays 40-something blocked writer out on the street after his actress wife dumps him. When he speaks at old flame Kingston's class he mentions that he is temporarily homeless. That leads to a (real? imagined?) invitation from two girls in her class to stay with them on their couch. The girls - Miko and Caplan - both are interesting and have depth, as they use the opportunity to bounce their writing concepts off Scott and Scott uses the opportunity to peek into their lives and whatever. I'm not much into philosophy but I enjoy the way the movie gets into fairly basic philosophical issues dealing with life choices. Scott seems very familiar although I can't recall seeing him before. I think he's made for the role of the over-thinking writer and I would like to see him in something else. Of the girls Miko really impressed me, she should be good to go in future films. Very entertaining in its unique way, I would normally object to the wrap up (like I did vehemently with Fight Club), but given what went before I thought it actually worked here.

Excellent if you stick with it.

[gtmail77 · 8/10 · 30 January 2012]

The other reviewers missed a few key points, mainly that the crasher is suffering from writer's block. That's the driving point in the script as we see him mix inspiration with sexual tension while basically never leaving the apt. A short movie and worth renting, but not a "Let's hit the sack" comedy romp AT ALL. It starts slowly and could have started with some later scenes where he actually moves in, but then we'd miss the character set up, which didn't have to be ham-fisted, since the rest of the movie isn't. Yeah! The tension builds as he gains confidence and the 2 girls flirt more and more, but not in a schoolgirl way. Yeh, the acting is a little wooden and the girls are kinda boring, but that adds credibility that pays off with the cool happy ending.

If you pay attention, it's an interesting movie

[BuunDawg · 8/10 · 28 February 2011]

This movie is sufficiently complex that you need to watch it very carefully to be sure you don't miss anything. It's basically a demonstration of the craft of writing - and a very good one at that. Because the movie is written so well, if you think about it afterward, you'll get an excellent insight about how to advance your ideas via suggestion, rather than plodding explanations. The context shifting between what's real and what's imagined by the characters themselves (as they also think and write) forces you to really pay attention. I'd say it's definitely worth watching - especially if you want to see how it makes your own thinking react.

Excellent exploration of a writer's mind! I joined IMDb to review this movie.

[DarkNode · 10/10 · 15 September 2010]

Writer seeks inspiration in apartment of 2 college girls. You know the synopsis, or at least you think you do.

Well get ready for some surprises. Crashing follows the minds and imaginations of Richard, Kristin and Jacqueline as they create reality together. Or do they? Through their writing, the scenes of Crashing unfold in a series of parallel stories, intertwined, and interdependent.

Crashing unfolds with multiple threads and explores alternate possibilities. It's almost as if the movie is being written as you are watching it...

This movie is perfection to me. As a writer I saw myself in every scene. Thinking my way through situations. Imagining various outcomes. Creating characters and embellishing. ...Some would call it enhancing reality.

If you are a creative person, and especially if you are a writer, you will appreciate and love this movie. The slow, melodic music winds its way through the movie, carrying you along. Crashing is even better than the French erotic movie, The Swimming Pool, with a similar premise.