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.

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.

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!

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.