Review of Crossing Over (2009) by Scott A — 15 Jun 2013

This movie is about illegal immigration. I will say that your thoughts on this film will probably come down to however liberal or conservative you see yourself. The film asks not IF we should always obey the laws in this issue, but how much of our own hearts do we allow to feel over said issue.

I will say that I fall on the more Liberal side of the issue. America began through Illegal Immigration, so when people tell me it's an awful thing for others to do because they are NOT white, it really angers me. Other countries allow garbage countries to have horrible rule, nearly forcing their people to flee and countries, like the USA, welcome them to save money on pay, benefits or safe work conditions. I can't fault people for wanting better lives for themselves, as if I were in their place, I'd want better too. And asking a child to pay for the mistake their parents made, and thus suffer a horrible life too, is just a dick move. Yes, I believe they should go through the right path, but I understand that desperate people will break the rules if they have to.

So knowing that, I felt this film was basically CRASH, only with immigration as the plot device over drugs. It has a super great cast and pending on your thoughts on the issue, you will either scoff at it or embrace it.

The film has a handful of stories. Harrison Ford is an agent who cracks when a young woman pleads for her child's life, and most of the film is him trying to find the mother who has gone missing trying to get back in America. His partner, Curtis, has gone off the rails a bit after his sister has been murdered. He gets a fantastic scene in a gas station robbery that does get a bit preachy, but it's still a great scene.

You have two friends, both white, also trying to get Green Cards in various ways. Sturgess wants to try to get it the legit way, while Alice Eve is looking for the more easy way out...which leads her to basically being had and stuck in a sex blackmail thing with Liotta. He is a dick in this film, and while she spends most of her scenes nude(yum!), she is kind of a brat not willing to become a citizen in the one true way.

You have a girl that makes a speech about trying to UNDERSTAND the bombers of 9/11, instead of the dumb Iraq War, and that leads to her whole family being threatened with deportation. And you have a family that came over the proper way so that their oldest son, Chon, can have a good life. And Ashley Judd is the one fighting on behave of a few children that could be deported, one whose mother is dying in a hospital of AIDS.

I still don't get what Lizzy Caplan had to do with anything, as she's in two scenes, but besides that I really liked this film. Shows that while people want to do good and follow the laws, our hearts can always be open to those less fortunate than us.