Mixed reviews on the internet, great cast, story with multiple angles, to me it seemed like few other films that tread the same ground but still very interesting. The talent of Paul Haggis and the exciting casting of Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon and others attracted me to this film and I'm grateful I ignored what the critics said. The film is a bunch of different people's stories that all connect to each other and all relate in some way. It's a strong and quite controversial story. Great in both concept and cast. I imagine that part of their negative reaction was due to the feeling of discomfort that the film conveyed and the very strong nature of its content. It's a difficult journey, but it's worth seeing. Indeed, many thanks again to Vue Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh for their help with this review and congratulations to G on his promotion! From the opening scene you are pretty much guaranteed to be shocked and uncomfortable, I know we were and were not expecting the tirade of abuse, one of the most uncomfortable aspects of this scene is that it comes from a white man to a Persian, who he thinks is in actually an Iraqi. A very disturbing scene and something the film is about. The insults don't just stop at white American over Persian, but also move against Latino against Chinese, Chinese against black, black against black, black against white, white against Chinese, and so on . One of the best moments in the film is early on when two black kids come out of an uptown restaurant in a very white neighborhood and one starts ranting about how badly they've been treated. “The waitress treated us like garbage, assuming we were black we wouldn't have tipped her.” he said rudely, and his friend turned to him, "well, how much did you tip her?", "That's not the point." This conversation is so well written and helps highlight the perpetuation of racism through excessive political correctness and over-analysis. . It's funny and insightful and was one of my favorite scenes. The scene works, watch it, understand it. It covers how difficult it is for people in Los Angeles (and indeed in any city) to actually get close to someone else and understand them. It seems to be much easier to blame others for problems than to actually address them, and if this movie is anything to go by, racism is a very common aspect of this culture..