Some stories are more convincing than others in this sprawling blend of thriller, melodrama and social drama.
Comment
07/31/09
Crossing Over (2009)
16
%
Tomatometer
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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.
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).... [More]
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Cliff Curtis
Director: Wayne Kramer
Reviews for Crossing Over
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.
02/26/09
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.
07/31/09
It's a film about the issues, but it's a film about people.
03/02/09
I think this is really an exceptional film. I didn't find really a false note in the behavior of any of these characters.
03/02/09
Although it has moments of poignancy, his sledgehammer approach is sometimes off-putting and risible.
07/31/09
I get what Kramer was trying to say about immigration and nationalism (though it's been said before and better), but if I had my way I'd edit the film down another hour. At least.
07/03/09
The script is occasionally heavy-handed, but its range of immigration experiences is impressive and you forgive the odd bit of speechifying because the storytelling is both engaging and provocative.
07/31/09
Director Wayne Kramer crisscrosses these stories into a diverting anthropological melodrama, with enough coincidence to keep the action unified.
02/25/09
Ignore the other critics. This is an engrossing, thoroughly entertaining movie with great performances from a first-rate ensemble cast.
02/28/09
Trust Kramer, though, to spring surprises with the help of a risk-taking cast.
02/27/09
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.
02/20/09
Writer-director Wayne Kramer gets uniformly terrific performances from a fine cast playing pawns in the game of sex, violence and betrayal that diminishes the noble tradition of naturalized citizenship.
03/04/09
The film is well-made and benefits from a very strong cast, but it's both overly worthy and rather pushy about its perspective.
07/31/09
Tied together with endless, flattening shots of L.A.'s cloverleaf freeways, Crossing Over is often simplistic and occasionally lugubrious, but it's rarely boring.
03/02/09
For anyone who felt that Crash was too subtle and self-effacing, I recommend Crossing Over, a multi-stranded, heavy handed exploration of the issues surrounding immigration and US citizenship.
07/31/09
Top CriticYou 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.
07/31/09
And if you thought Crash and Babel were preachy and awful, you ain't seen nothing yet.
02/24/09
Maybe if he [director Wayne Kramer] had kept Crossing Over simpler, he would have made a less simplistic movie.
03/13/09
Top CriticThis 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.
02/25/09
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. 
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
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