Feb 27, 2009 12:19 pm US/Eastern
'Crossing Over'
Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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The best we can say is that writer-director Wayne Kramer means well -- 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.
AP
The best we can say is that writer-director Wayne Kramer means well -- 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 as he tells the tales of various immigrants trying to forge new lives in Los Angeles, and the federal employees who determine their fates. Among the ensemble cast, Harrison Ford plays a veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. He and his Iranian-born partner (Cliff Curtis) are raiding a sweat shop at the film's start, where they arrest a Mexican worker (Alice Braga) with a young son at home.
There's also the British musician (Jim Sturgess) who pretends to observe his long-neglected Jewish faith for admission to the country, and his Australian girlfriend (Alice Eve), who dreams of Hollywood stardom and will do whatever it takes to get there.
A subplot involving a Bangladeshi teenager (Summer Bishil from "Towelhead") who writes a provocative essay about trying to understand the mind-set of the 9/11 attackers probably aimed to offer thoughtful discourse but instead comes out as noise.
R for pervasive language, some strong violence and sexuality/nudity. 113 min.
One and a half stars out of four.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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