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Movies / Upcoming / Crossing Over
Crossing Over

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Crossing Over (2009)

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Reviews Counted:102

Fresh:16

Rotten:86

Average Rating:4.1/10

Consensus: Crossing Over is flagrant and heavy-handed about a situation that deserves more deliberate treatment, and joins its characters with coincidences that strain believability.

Runtime: 1 hr 53 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $402,469

Synopsis: The struggle to achieve resident alien status, or gain full-blown citizenship in the United States, provides some thought-provoking material in this feature from director Wayne Kramer(THE COOLER).... The struggle to achieve resident alien status, or gain full-blown citizenship in the United States, provides some thought-provoking material in this feature from director Wayne Kramer(THE COOLER). CROSSING OVER is an ensemble piece that contains many overlapping storylines, most of which revolve around Max Brogan (Harrison Ford), a law enforcement official who specializes in arresting people who break stringent immigration laws. Joining Ford is Ray Liotta, who plays a corrupt immigration official who forces a wannabe Australian actress (Alice Eve) to sleep with him in exchange for a green card. The film also focuses on the rigorous guidelines laid down in post-9/11 America, with Kramer detailing the shocking maltreatment of a teenage girl who faces deportation after giving a misguided high school presentation on terrorism. These tales, and several others, all combine to present an intricate overview of the desperate and often overwhelmingly sad lengths people will go to so they can remain in the United States. Kramer’s film closely mirrors other harrowing ensemble pieces such as Paul Haggis’s CRASH (2004) and Richard Linklater’s FAST FOOD NATION (2006). CROSSING OVER carefully presents many different sides of this complicated issue and also examines how coincidence and good fortune can play a part in achieving resident status. Ford is perfectly cast as the downcast lead character who battles with the moral and ethical ramifications of his job, and frequently gets too close to the people he is required to prosecute. Kramer skillfully interweaves each tale and allows just enough screen time to each of his characters, with Cliff Curtis leading the excellent supporting cast by playing an Iranian-American immigration official whose life is irrevocably altered by a series of tragic personal and professional occurrences. [More]

Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Cliff Curtis

Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Cliff Curtis, Jim Sturgess, Alice Eve, Alice Braga, Justin Chon, Summer Bishil

Director: Wayne Kramer

Director: Wayne Kramer
Screenwriter: Wayne Kramer
Producer: Frank Marshall, Wayne Kramer, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Weinstein Company

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Reviews for Crossing Over

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1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
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And if you thought Crash and Babel were preachy and awful, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Full Review Source: MSNBC | comment 1 Comment
02/24/09
Alonso Duralde
Alonso Duralde
MSNBC

Crossing Over crosses into the mythic realm of camp. What a waste. I still say it’s better than Crash, though.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment 1 Comment
02/23/09
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine

You can be too right-on. And that's the problem with this smug Hollywood multi-strand drama about immigration that sweats self-righteousness from every pore.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
07/31/09
Sun Online

Some stories are more convincing than others in this sprawling blend of thriller, melodrama and social drama.

Full Review Source: Daily Express | comment Comment
07/31/09
Allan Hunter
Allan Hunter
Daily Express

This all sounds didactic and silly. It is. It's also highly watchable, and simultaneously complex, simple-minded, and deferential to the audience's base level of intelligence.

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
02/26/09
Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

Maybe if he [director Wayne Kramer] had kept Crossing Over simpler, he would have made a less simplistic movie.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
03/13/09
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As with many multi-character pieces, it's somewhat unbalanced by its competing storylines, and its lapses into sentimentality seem inevitable, but Kramer deserves credit for taking on a touchy subject.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
07/31/09
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

This focus on uneasy spiritual and political transformation runs into thematic banality. Although more than a set of patchwork, Crash-like homilies, Crossing Over is almost as didactic.

Full Review Source: New York Press | comment Comment
02/25/09
Armond White
Armond White
New York Press

Sporadically provocative, but often convoluted and dull with undercooked messages and ideas.

Full Review Source: NYC Movie Guru | comment Comment
02/28/09
Avi Offer
Avi Offer
NYC Movie Guru

It's a film about the issues, but it's a film about people.

Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
03/02/09
Ben Lyons
Ben Lyons
At the Movies

I think this is really an exceptional film. I didn't find really a false note in the behavior of any of these characters.

Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
03/02/09
Ben Mankiewicz
Ben Mankiewicz
At the Movies

There are good performances here, but the sheer number dilutes their power, leaving the movie a bit of a mess.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
03/25/09
Bill Goodykoontz
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic

The subject of immigration is much too substantial to be treated as kitten play, leaving such thespian promise out to rot with material that suggests great intellectual stimulation, but only delivers yawns.

Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
06/10/09
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
DVDTalk.com

A completely disingenuous slice of awful storytelling, one-note performances, and manipulative melodrama that should not only not be seen, it should be boycotted.

Full Review Source: Movie Retriever | comment Comment
03/13/09
Brian Tallerico
Brian Tallerico
Movie Retriever

A responsible message movie wrapped in an irresponsible exploitation flick that cries fire in a crowded theater.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
03/12/09
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer

Less like watching a movie than solving an equation.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
04/24/09
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Although it has moments of poignancy, his sledgehammer approach is sometimes off-putting and risible.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
07/31/09
Chris Prince
Chris Prince
Sky Movies

Crossing Over 'Crashes' the gates of illegal immigration with little new, or insightful, to add to the debate.

Full Review Source: PajamasMedia | comment Comment
03/23/09
Christian Toto
Christian Toto
PajamasMedia

Writer-director Wayne Kramer insists on trying to tell us all the way through what we should feel. Yet, by the end, it's not clear what he's trying to say: are U.S. immigration laws unfair, unnecessary or badly enforced?

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
07/31/09
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

Crossing Over has hurtled into Crash territory, and the smash-up is not a happy collision.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
02/26/09
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Crossing Over

June 08, 2009: RT on DVD: Gran Torino, Crossing Over, Nobel Son Exclusive Look
This week on DVD, celebrate the big screen heroics of two former movie heroes (Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, Harrison Ford in Crossing Over) or watch Clive Owen and Naomi Watts... More...

March 01, 2009: Harrison Ford does a very different sort of reluctant, discombobulated thinking man's action hero this time around, a kinder, gentler immigration cop not into raids, and mocked by his colleagues as an INS girlie guy. Opens in new window
More...

February 26, 2009: Critics Consensus: Jonas Brothers Fizzles
This week at the movies, we've got teenybop pop (Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience, starring Jonas Brothers) and a video game adaptation (Street Fighter: The Legend of... More...

November 26, 2008: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
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