Crossing Over (2009)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Wayne Kramer

Writer:

Wayne Kramer (written by)

Release Date:

26 February 2009 (Bahrain)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Every day thousands of people illegally cross our borders... only one thing stands in their way. America.

Plot:

Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles...

Plot Keywords:

Fraud | Green Card | Guitar Playing | Abuse Of Power | Infidelity

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Max Brogan
Ray Liotta	...	Cole Frankel
Ashley Judd	...	Denise Frankel
Jim Sturgess	...	Gavin Kossef
Cliff Curtis	...	Hamid Baraheri
Summer Bishil	...	Taslima Jahangir
Alice Braga	...	Mireya Sanchez
Alice Eve	...	Claire Shepard
Jacqueline Obradors	...	Special Agent Phadkar
Justin Chon	...	Yong Kim
Melody Khazae	...	Zahra Baraheri
Merik Tadros	...	Farid Baraheri
Marshall Manesh	...	Sanjar Baraheri
Nina Nayebi	...	Minoo Baraheri
Naila Azad	...	Rokeya Jahangir

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive language, some strong violence and sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

USA:113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #44822) | Singapore:M18 | Norway:15 | Finland:K-15 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Germany:16 (f)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

C.O. Films

Trivia:

Director Wayne Kramer's original cut was 140 minutes long, but despite having the right to final cut he agreed to be involved in editing the film down to two hours when Harvey Weinstein allegedly threatened to release the film straight to DVD, and bypass theatrical altogether.

Movie Connections:

References WALL·E (2008)

Soundtrack:

Mistake the Enemy

Uneventful, poorly written 'Crash' wannabe, although it's not entirely unwatchable.

I'm quite disappointed in Wayne Cramer. He came onto the scene a fabulous, original little film called "The Cooler", then he made "Running Scared" which I've never seen but heard mixed opinions about it. Now we get "Crossing Over" which just feels like Cramer watched Crash, Babel, and Traffic too many times in one afternoon and decided to try and make a film similar to those award-winning (and far superior) films, but ended up with an overly melodramatic film with boring stories.

That's the initial feeling of this poorly constructed portrait of immigration life. A film with interconnecting stories seems to come out annually, starting back to 1994 when Pulp Fiction skyrocketed the indie scene. The only good films to follow fitting that multi-character/multi-storyline plot were the three films mentioned above, which weren't introduced until the next decade.

This does not try to be Pulp Fiction, however. It tries to be it's own story but fails. Not miserably, but failing nonetheless. I actually wanted to see this film as far back as 2007 when it was in production. I never had high hopes for it, but I did have a feeling that it was going to be a good film. I didn't get that. I didn't get a terrible film, either. Instead I get a multi-layered story that just seems completely pointless and emotionless midway through the film. The characters never have anything interesting to say and they're all cardboard cutouts.

Wayne Cramer has showed his talents with "The Cooler", so I guess the big question is: "Why can't you make a good movie again?" There's potential in his work, but it just doesn't fit together. I don't know what else to say, except that I'm severely disappointed and that I probably won't be watching his next film.