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.

In post-Sept. 11 Los Angeles, tensions erupt when the lives of a Brentwood housewife, her district attorney husband, a Persian shopkeeper, two cops, a pair of carjackers and a Korean couple converge during a 36-hour period.