I think this is really an exceptional film. I didn't find really a false note in the behavior of any of these characters.
Crossing Over (2009)
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).... 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
Reviews for Crossing Over
It's a powerful opening to a movie that rapidly fractures into a hodgepodge of interlocking subplots showcasing immigration woes.
The film plods along until late in the game when its mystery story is resolved with three nested flashbacks by a filmmaker with a markedly unimaginative sense of cinematic storytelling.
Once the plot mechanics kick into gear, it becomes increasingly difficult to take the movie seriously.
A sub-par knockoff of Paul Haggis' "Crash," writer/ director Wayne Kramer's L.A.-based dramatic tapestry is a threadbare yawner.
Sporadically provocative, but often convoluted and dull with undercooked messages and ideas.
Ignore the other critics. This is an engrossing, thoroughly entertaining movie with great performances from a first-rate ensemble cast.
This is a movie with the courage to examine the pressing issue of whether hot blond Aussie starlets are sleeping with government agents -- whom they meet in fender benders -- to get green cards.
Crossing Over has its heart in umpteen places and its head stuffed with dramatic claptrap.
An interesting failure, a movie that at least strives to be about something, entangling itself with the question of what it means to be an American -- or, more specifically, what it means to deserve to live here.
Trust Kramer, though, to spring surprises with the help of a risk-taking cast.
A well-intentioned drama about complicated immigration issues that falters thanks to a wobbly screenplay.
Forced, heavy-handed and overdone, it's a pretend serious film that offers crass manipulation in the place where honesty is supposed to be.
In its intensely earnest and utterly relentless pursuit of the whole truth--and nothing but the truth--about the evils of immigration policy in the United States, Crossing Over sometimes borders on the ridiculous.
Crossing Over delivers its sanctimony with less hand-wringing and more fist-shaking, complete with lurid violence and periodically bared female flesh.
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 ![]()
More...
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