Crossing Over

Stars: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Cliff Curtis, Alice Eve, Ashley Judd, Alice Braga, Jim Sturgess, Jacqueline Obradors

Director: Wayne Kramer

A decent, if just occasionally turgid multi-character drama about the plight of illegal immigrants in the US, reminiscent in structure of the superior Crash. As with both films, several story threads interweave.

Ford, in his most earnest form, but solid for all that, plays an immigration enforcement cop, Max, whose unenviable job is rounding up immigrants at the sweatshops of Los Angeles. On one raid with his Iranian-born partner Hamid (Curtis), Max encounters an especially pathetic Mexican single mum (Braga) and is tempted to let her go - but can't. He does reunite her young son with his grandparents in Mexico, but is unable to locate the girl herself.

Other interlocking segments involve immigration lawyer Judd trying to adopt a young black girl, while her husband (Liotta), an immigration inspector, finds buxom Australian actress Eve (bonzer Aussie accent, Alice) willing to bed him for two months in return for her green card.

Perhaps the more poignant stories involve a teenage Bangladeshi girl (Summer Bishil), who brings disaster to her family with her incendiary views on 9.11, Yung (Justin Chon), a Korean youth caught up with local gangs, and Hamid's involvement with both the Yung story and that of his sister (Melody Khazae) whose lifestyle is frowned on by her strict Iranian family.

Curtis is particularly good as Hamid and, although some of the stories are inevitably more compelling than others, this is on the whole a worthwhile venture spotlighting an ongoing problem and providing reasonable entertainment at the same time.

David Quinlan

USA 2008. UK Distributor: Entertainment. Technicolor/Colour by deluxe.
113 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 2, Violence/Horror 1, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 28 Jul 2009