Crossing Over movie review

Directed by: Wayne Kramer Produced by : Kathleen Kennedy,Frank Marshall Written by: Wayne Kramer Starring Harrison Ford,Jim Sturgess,Ray Liotta,Tammin Sursok,Ashley Judd,Alice Eve,Summer Bishil,Cliff Curtis,Merik Tadros Music by: Brian Ross Cinematography: James Whitaker Distributed by: The Weinstein Company Release date(s): February 13, 2009 Running time: February 27, 2009 (limited) Country: United States Language: English

The best we can say is that writer-director Wayne Kramer means well with "Crossing Over" — he means to put a human face on the unwieldy and divisive topic of illegal immigration. Trouble is, he puts a lot of faces on it. Too many, actually; we rarely get a feeling for who Kramer's many characters really are. And the way he weaves their stories together is so heavy-handed, absurdly contrived and, sometimes, unintentionally hilarious that he repeatedly undermines his intentions. His tone shifts uncomfortably from earnest to didactic to incendiary and back again as he tells the tales of various immigrants trying to forge new lives in Los Angeles, as well as the federal employees who may determine their fates. Comparisons to "Crash" are inevitable, especially given Kramer's fondness for overhead shots of the city's sprawling freeways. (Ooh, we're all so different and disconnected, yet we share the same space!) There's also a literal car crash that sets off one of the movie's subplots. But while some critics may have viewed that best-picture winner as overrated, "Crossing Over" plays like a watered-down copycat. Among the ensemble cast, Harrison Ford stars as veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Max Brogan. The main thing we know about him is that he's burned out, which Ford conveys with his typical curmudgeonly understatement. He also has a 27-year-old daughter from whom he's estranged, which is mentioned once and then dropped. Max and his Iranian-born partner, Hamid (Cliff Curtis), are raiding a sweat shop at the film's start, where they arrest Mexican worker Mireya (Alice Braga), who's here illegally with her young son. Hamid's father, a wealthy businessman who fled Iran in the 1979 revolution, is about to become a naturalized citizen himself. There's also British musician Gavin (Jim Sturgess), who pretends to observe his long-neglected Jewish faith for admission to the country, which leads to an amusing scene in which he stumbles his way through a Hebrew prayer in front of a rabbi. Gavin's Australian girlfriend, Claire (Alice Eve), has her own dreams of stardom: She wants to be the next Nicole Kidman or Naomi Watts and will do whatever it takes to get there. This brings us the freakiest story line, in which Claire agrees to have sex in seedy motels with paunchy bureaucrat Cole (Ray Liotta), who will arrange a green card for her in return. Oddly compelling, but it feels like it belongs in a different movie. A subplot involving Bangladeshi teenager Taslima (Summer Bishil), who writes an essay about trying to understand the mind-set of the 9/11 attackers, probably aimed to offer thoughtful discourse on an emotional subject but instead comes out as noise. Bishil, the poised young star of "Towelhead," has some strong moments here, too, though. But then Ashley Judd barely gets anything to do as the immigration attorney who defends Taslima (she also happens to be Cole's wife), and a subplot about a Korean teenager (Justin Chon) who's forced into crime as a gang initiation feels like an inferior version of "Gran Torino." Oh, and his dad happens to be Max's dry cleaner. What are the odds? "Crossing Over," a Weinstein Co. release, is rated R for pervasive language, some strong violence and sexuality/nudity. Running time: 113 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

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