SYNOPSIS:
The U.S. offers hope - but that often comes at a price. Many can earn citizenship legally through a lengthy bureaucratic process, but others find themselves out of luck in a country where virtually anything can be bought. Sex, violence and betrayal become their currency. Some wait in line for permission to enter the U.S. while others take matters into their own hands.Working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles, Max Brogan (Harrison Ford) is an agent sworn to protect the nation's immigration laws. He deals with the thousands that try to cross over into the U.S. in search of a better life. Through the lives of Brogan; Brogan's ICE partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis); Denise Frankel (Ashley Judd), an immigration defense attorney; and her husband applications adjudicator Cole Frankel (Ray Liotta) we see the impact of immigration goes beyond the job and defines their lives.
MOVIE REVIEW:
What is the cost of a green card? How much will some be willing to pay just to be naturalized? “Crossing Over”, writer-director Wayne Kramer’s socio-political drama, deals with the price of immigration in America, what exactly it costs and what exactly some will take just to cross over.
Featuring an ensemble cast including Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Jim Sturgess and Cliff Curtis, it’s inevitable that comparisons will be made between this movie and the Academy-Award winning “Crash”. Both interweave a vignette of stories and characters and both are set in Los Angeles. The reason for this is no coincidence- Los Angeles is closest to the border to Mexico, and it’s a city divided rather distinctly through area by race.
Race was at the heart of “Crash”, the film that dealt intimately and passionately with the foment and consequences of bigotry and discrimination in LA. One can think of “Crossing Over” as a prequel of sorts- since whether legally or illegally, it is the crossing over of immigrants from various and varied countries that have led to the multiracial makeup of LA and also the tensions and hostility among races that “Crash” portrays.
But where “Crash” was deeply evocative and provocative, though manipulatively so, “Crossing Over” is a relatively tame treatment of a subject which could have been equally thought-provoking. Indeed, helmer Wayne Kramer has little of the dexterity that “Crash” director Paul Haggis displayed in weaving together his anthology of criss-crossing stories. Aside from the fact that Kramer’s film moves in stops and starts, “Crossing Over” also doesn’t have enough to stimulate.
Out of all the story strands- the weary Immigrations officer (Harrison Ford) concerned for a particular subject he arrested, the wanna-be Australian celebrity who trades herself for a green card with a jaded officer (Ray Liotta), the teenage immigrant trying to fit into a foreign land among others- only that of Harrison Ford’s Iranian partner’s (Cliff Curtis) conservative family woes manages to be rousing. Partly the tepid nature of the individual stories, and partly the measly time given to each of them due to their multitude, “Crossing Over” misses the punch-line it could very well have delivered.
It’s also a waste of talent on screen. Harrison Ford is the biggest name among the cast but even his magnetism is lost amidst a clichéd story that gives him little dramatic potential. Worse still for his co-stars Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd and Jim Sturgess, who are given surprisingly little to do with their characters. Yes, because of the excess of stories, there are also too many characters around and not enough time for any of them to make much of an impression.
Pity then since the questions and issues “Crossing Over” raises are certainly pertinent and interesting. But Wayne Kramer takes a larger slice of the pie that he can finish and ends up with an overstuffed movie that doesn’t appreciate the potential in the subject it deals with. Too many stories and too many characters, “Crossing Over” is a movie that fails to make the leap to its audience and leaves you wanting more.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains no extra features.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The disc’s visual transfer shows no visible grains throughout. This isn’t an action picture so the Dolby 2.0 audio track will do just fine.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 31 August 2009
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