Author: Wyatt Sanderman Day | Published: June 28th, 2009

    
In America You Are Free to Dream... But You Better Be Here Legally

    This is one of the themes of "Crossing Over," the newest film from Writer / Director Wayne Kramer. This film about immigration: legal and illegal is set in southern California, and involves representatives of many of the nationalities that inhabit this multicultural city.

    The story begins with an ICE roundup of mostly Mexican illegal immigrants at a textile manufacturer, where an ICE agent, Max Brogan, played by Harrison Ford, arrests a young Hispanic woman for deportation and zealously starts the process of deportation without allowing her to reunite with her young son. By the time Max gets his heart right on this issue, it is too late. The mother is on her way back to Mexico. Her son still stranded in Los Angeles.

    This is just one of the running stories wrapped within this thematic juggernaut of multiple stories of those who rush to this land of promise, whether they are entitled or not. The picture is reminiscent of "Crash," but instead of that film's running theme of racism, "Crossing Over's" theme is the conundrum of immigration. As in "Crash," "Crossing Over" deals with an ensemble collection of immigrants, but instead of the former film's vignettes on racism, they are seeking their version of the American dream and some, sadly, find a nightmare.

    I could not decipher the message, offered by Mr. Kramer, as overtly liberal; however, I believe the Director wanted to paint the picture of a systemic problem that demands some realistic exploration. Within the context of this multicultural morality play, the film considers: illegal immigration, solicitation of a bribe by an immigration bureaucrat, an Arab Junior Jihadist who is in the country illegally, a Persian honor killing and Korean gang crime with one member getting a well-timed second chance. These are just part of the individual stories that are interwoven by varying degrees of separation, but the one theme that runs through these vignettes is they are all complicated.

    The film attempts to unravel each variable situation to discover its kernel of truth, but not to the extent that the film sacrifices all sensibility. One case in point is that of the Arab Junior Jihadist Taslima Jahangir, played be Summer Bishil, who is in the USA illegally. While dressed in full berka, she writes a creative writing paper criticizing American policies while sympathizing with the terrorists' tactics on 9/11. Summer suffers a number of derisive comments, from her fellow public school students, that fall far short of racist. She does; however, find the FBI does take her pronouncements lightly, with the USA in an active state of war against Islamic Terrorism, and elects to have her civilly deported from this country to her native Arab country. This act of deportation is the suitable American response to her Jihadist pronouncements, which would have earned her a public stoning in her native land.

    Ashley Judd plays the ultra liberal illegal immigration lawyer, Denise Frenkel, who attempts to aid the Jahangir Family, but fortunately, to no avail. It was good to see the FBI doing their job to keep Americans safe, while we are in a state of war declared upon us by Islamic Terrorists. Similarly, the ICE agents appeared to be on top of the interdiction of the illegal immigrants, but most of us know that is not altogether true. When the United States economy was enjoying positive growth, ICE was wholly inadequate in its response. Possibly, the USA will be prepared to encounter that problem when the economy reignites, but don't count on it.

    One thing moviegoers can count on is true native New Zealander Cliff Curtis as the Iranian ICE agent, Hamid Baraheri. His strength as an actor is evident as the strong, but sensitive agent, who does his job and still must deal with his family's adjustment to a more free society, where its citizens are free to succeed and free to make mistakes.

    The picture is 113 minutes of runtime, is worth your time, because the story is important, and fortunately, keeps the preaching to a minimum - which is rare for most Hollywood films dealing with sensitive, topical and complex issues.

    Rated R. Released on DVD June 9, 2009.

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