Obvious, uninspired immigration drama tries to emulate Oscar winner
"Crossing Over" sounds like the title for a movie about people dying and going to heaven.
In a way, it perfectly fits Wayne Kramer's ensemble U.S. immigration drama. People around the world view America as the closest thing to heaven on earth, and in some cases, they're willing to die to get there.
This is not a new or novel idea, stuck in a movie that has little new or novel to contribute to the continuing debate over U.S. immigration policy. People want to come and work in America, and there are laws to prevent them, but not enough enforcement resources to stop them, and it's all so unfair to everyone.
OK, we get it.
At least Kramer's ambitious drama stretches beyond the usual Mexican-border horror stories we get in most immigration movies. Still, I doubt if any film critic in the world can get through a review of "Crossing Over" without mentioning how much it emulates Paul Haggis' Oscar-winning film "Crash," a multilayered look at American racism.
Kramer, himself a U.S. immigrant from South Africa, adopts the same latticed narrative structure and heftiness of subject matter, so it almost feels like a "Crash" clone, but an inferior one.
Every scene in "Crossing Over" feels programmed and predestined, as if they were jigsaw pieces being positioned for a bigger payoff later. They are.
The main story starts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Max Brogan conducting a raid on a California sweatshop. Brogan is played by Harrison Ford, whose puffy features and unflattering coif give him the appearance of an oversized Keebler elf.
At the sweatshop bust, a young detainee (Alice Braga) tearfully pleads with Brogan to take care of her little boy, left in the care of another family. He throws the address away.
Across town, an attractive Australian actress named Claire (Alice Eve) has a fender-bender with the corrupt Cole Frankel (Ray Liotta), an immigration honcho who has the power to grant green cards. He wastes no time in pressuring the illegal Claire into becoming his sex slave for two months in exchange for an expedited green card.
Claire's on-and-off boyfriend Gavin (Jim Sturgess) is an atheist who tries to get a teaching job at a Jewish school to stay in the United States. But he really wants to be a rock star. Or lounge lizard.
Meanwhile, Frankel's immigration attorney wife Denise (a wasted Ashley Judd) wants to adopt a cute little Nigerian kid, but the red tape makes it look impossible.
Trouble abounds for Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis), Brogan's Iranian-American ICE partner, whose father fled during the 1979 Iran revolution. Dad is displeased that daughter Zahra (Melody Khazae) has become too Americanized with her loose clothing and partying. When she winds up dead, Baraheri is strangely distanced.
Finally, two teens have a tough time in America: a Korean boy (Justin Chon) is pressured to join a local Asian gang (without Clint Eastwood around to help him) and a Bangladeshi girl ("Towelhead" star Summer Bishil) learns the hard way why it's not a good idea to defend the 9/11 terrorists in an essay.
These characters go through their motions (does anyone actually think Brogan won't go find that address he threw away?) in an airless, obvious drama where even the casting feels uninspired.(Just think how much more challenging it would have been had Ford and Liotta switched roles.)
Reportedly, a lot of infighting among the filmmakers caused "Crossing Over" to be edited several times before this version was finally released.
Kramer should have held out for one more cut.
<p class="factboxheadblack">"Crossing Over"</p> <p class="News">Two stars</p> <p class="News"><b>Starring:</b> Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Cliff Curtis, Summer Bishil</p> <p class="News"><b>Directed by:</b> Wayne Kramer</p> <p class="News">A Weinstein Company release. Rated R (language, nudity, sexual situations, violence). 113 minutes</p>