Crossing Over (2009)

Crossing Over is about illegal aliens of many nationalities in the Los Angeles area and the authorities and individuals dealing with them.

Director:

Wayne Kramer

Writer:

Wayne Kramer (screenplay)

Stars:

Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd, Ray Liotta

1 win.

Cast

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

Storyline

Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter terrorism and the clash of cultures.

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Plot Keywords:

illegal alien | illegal immigrant | mini skirt | lingerie | unfaithfulness | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Removable and Deportable offenses are different in that someone is removable when they are not eligible to be in the United States. Deportable offenses are more numerous and basically amount to felonies with gangs, drugs, domestic violence, weapons, and sex offenses being a top priority for Immigration Enforcement. Being convicted of such offenses will automatically put a non-US citizen in Deportation proceedings with little hope of relief.

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Goofs

In Gavin's interview scene, the immigration officer relies on the Rabbi's opinion. The garb and the accent of the Rabbi suggest he is a European Orthodox (probably Lubavich), yet in the end he gives Gavin a card, saying he should come to Temple Bet Sholom. "Temple Bet Sholom" is typically a name for splinter Reform congregations, whose rabbis are mostly American- or Canadian-born (therefore no accent), and wear contemporary clothes.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Max Brogan: What do you want me to do?
San Pedro ICE Processing Agent: Look, it's not my problem.
Max Brogan: All I'm asking, Stevens, is did the old man get seen to? He was sweating and shaking when I put him on the bus. He said his arm felt numb.
San Pedro ICE Processing Agent: Jesus Christ, Brogan, everything is a humanitarian crisis with you. You've signed off on more orders of recognizance than the rest of your unit combined.
Max Brogan: Don't give me that shit. The man's about to have a goddamn heart attack. I want him seen to.

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Connections

References WALL·E (2008)

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Soundtracks

Bad Habits
Written by Scott Larson & Patrick Aldous
Performed by Desert Radio
Courtesy of Desert Radio Music, Inc.
By Arrangement with Nettwerk Productions

User Reviews

Far superior to muddled Crash

Unlike Crash, another recent disparate-people-dealing-with-a-sociological-issue movie, Crossing Over is poignant, stirring, and rousing, capturing what must be the wrenching experience of being an immigrant, legal or otherwise, in the United States. Led by Harrison Ford, the ensemble cast touches all the bases. Although the movie can be very difficult to watch at times, owing to its subject matter, it's a tough-minded look at the often-tragic issue of immigration.

Ford plays Max Brogan, an INS agent stationed in Los Angeles, who decides to help an illegal textile worker (Alice Braga) by making sure that the woman's son is taken to his grandmother (the woman's mother) in Mexico when the woman is detained. Meanwhile, Max's partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis), struggles to reconcile his job with the culture of his family (Iranian) and the reckless behavior of his younger sister. Ray Liotta plays Cole Frankel, an adjudicator who determines the status of immigrants and their green cards; Alice Eve is an aspiring Australian actress who has to degrade herself to lengthen her stay in the country; Ashley Judd plays Liotta's wife, who defends immigrants in status cases. In a parallel storyline, a young Korean youth, days before his family's naturalization ceremony, makes a decision that could have terrible consequences.

All of these story lines are intricately intertwined, but here's where the movie differs from Crash: the interactions of the various characters never feel forced or insincere, and the characters themselves are not simple good people doing bad things or bad people doing good things.

The acting is uniformly grand. Ford, who rarely plays nonhero roles let alone supporting roles, is excellent as the crusty, world-weary agent, trying desperately to solve a serious crime that may hit close to home while also doing the right thing by the young textile-worker mother. Also shining is Judd (and, to a lesser extent, Liotta, although he plays the same character in many of his movies now - a slimeball), but really sealing the deal is Curtis (10,000 BC, Sunshine) as the conflicted agent of Iranian descent.

Like the issue of immigration itself, the movie is complicated, almost detrimentally so, but the conflict should certainly resonate with its audience, even if one is not an immigrant or part of a family that has recently immigrated. Certain scenes are almost deadly with their pathos, figuratively rending your heart as they play out. Emotionally gripping scenes such as these (particularly near the end of the film) exemplify precisely the kind of psychological gymnastics that a director must undertake for a film like this to have any sort of positive effect on its audience. That is, the entire issue of immigration is fraught with anger, deceit, terror, and sadness, and it can be tricky to walk the line between one feeling or another, lest one be accused of bias.

Crossing Over falls into none of the traps that Crash fell into. Its character-driven storyline is brimming with plausible conflict that eclipses the usual cops-and-illegals pastiche, choosing instead to deal with problems on a more individual level. The result is an honest, illuminating look at a sometimes-vexing subject, although it is clearly not for all tastes.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Korean Persian Spanish Arabic

Release Date:

26 February 2009 (Bahrain)

Also Known As:

Crossing Over

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$19,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$77,370, 1 March 2009

Gross USA:

$455,654

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,676,533

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Weinstein Company, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Movie Prose

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min 140 min (original)

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1