Crossing Over
Crossing over is all about making dreams come true in America through a process of illegal immigration. In all societies immigrants are always looked down upon with a sense of skepticism but the immigrants come with sheer determination, undying ambition and expert skill.
It’s a hard challenge to come to America legally and it’s almost suicidal to step into the country illegally.
Whatever be it, immigrants who come to America are no ordinary beings, but they are best. One can find most cab drivers in America as natives of Africa, Pakistan, the Middle East, the Philippines, India and America. The common factor in all of them is the fact that all car radios remain tuned to National Public radio station telling one and all so many thinks without words.
Crossing Over is intertwined with lives, problems and family of several immigrants. The framework of Crossing Over is borrowed from Crash, an all time great movie.
Crossing Over becomes bit complicated with too many characters and the natural flow of the film gets distorted with several strands of story, nonetheless the movie has been successful in capturing the essence of lives of immigrants in America. Immigrants in Crossing Over range from countries like Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mexico, England, Iran, Australia and even Korea.
The story strands are connected by two customs enforcement and immigration officers Max and Hamid played by Harrison Ford and Cliff Curtis respectively, Denise played by Ashley Judd who is defense attorney for immigration and Cole (Ray Liotta) the adjudicator.
The several story lines include the tragedy of separation of a Mexican woman from her child, a well established Iranian family, guts of a Muslim Teenager to speak about 9/11 attack in class, pressure inflicted upon a Korean girl to join the Korean gang, a Jew teacher from Britain, Australian upcoming actress and a Nigerian child (orphan) who would be deported back to Nigeria as he lies stranded. Some of these threads get untied with pleasant notes while some other leaves behind bitter memories of sadness.
In this film, stands tall and strong are Harrison Ford’s role and his awesome performance. There are emotional moments involving Ford and Alice Braga at the time when Alice implores Ford to get her child back from baby sitter.
Ford’s role reflected power of greater conscience and embedded values, so he does all to unite the Mexican child with grandparents. Ashley Judd’s role helps all to gather information and greater insight into how the legal system in America works when it comes to handling immigration issues.
The film just got too large with so many characters and several threads. This might be the reason for many flaws pointed out by film critics in Crossing Over. Despite this fact, Crossing Over stirs one’s thought process and intrigues one’s imagination.
So, one can keep watching it for better understanding of impossible dreams made possible by immigrants in soils of America.
The film is R for some explicit nudity and sexuality and pervasive violence and disturbing sequences.
Film: Crossing Over
Cast: Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta, Cliff Curtis
Director: Wayne Kramer
Writer: Wayne Kramer
Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes
Rating: 2.5/5
Posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
April 1st, 2009 at 2:10 am
Check out the new Jim Sturgess website with production stills, videos, and movie posters for “Crossing Over.” Jim plays Gavin Kossef, a British/Jewish immigrant who seeks status by lying about teaching in a Hebrew school.