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Derek Malcolm's rating
Crossing Over is a thought-provoking drama
By
Derek Malcolm
31 Jul 2009
Writer-director Wayne Kramer’s film tries, without too much polemic, to portray the cruel bureaucratic process through which immigrants become US citizens.
It clearly has the best of intentions but is, sadly, botched.
Harrison Ford plays Max Brogan, a liberal-minded immigration officer in Los Angeles. His partner, Hamid (Cliff Curtis), is a much more cynical operator. Ashley Judd plays an immigration defence attorney, while her husband (Ray Liotta) is an applications adjudicator.
These four interact with a desperate Mexican factory worker (Alice Braga); a Jewish musician from Britain (Jim Sturgess); a small-time Australian actress(Alice Eve); and a Korean teenager (Justin Chon) who is hopelessly caught between two worlds.
There is also a young Bangladeshi (Summer Bishel) who is threatened with deportation for saying that the 9/11 terrorists had a legitimate point — even if they chose the wrong way to make it.
Kramer covers most options but in attempting some kind of thriller, possibly to attract audiences, stymies most of them.
The result is well-acted but increasingly either melodramatic or just plain dull.
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