A tough 'Crossing' for Ford and his fans
Crossing Over
Running time: 113 minutes
MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, violence, extreme adult situations, blatant nudity, drugs)
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Harrison Ford isn't out to save the world or even his family in "Crossing Over." And, for a change, his character isn't larger than life.
Ford sputters along in the gritty, dismal norm as a Los Angeles-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer trying to help a young mother from Mexico he arrested during a raid.
"Crossing Over," written and directed by Wayne Kramer, borrows the "Traffic" or "Crash" style of overlapping story lines eventually erupting into dramatic crescendo.
Kramer made a very good, edgy gambling romantic-drama titled "The Cooler" in 2003. He's no Steven Soderbergh ("Traffic") or Paul Haggis ("Crash"), though. At least not yet.
Ford's stone-face persona doesn't fit well into this grim tale of immigration agents and illegal aliens desperate enough to put their lives (or their body parts) on the line to make a better life in the U.S.
He never smirks, as Ford has done as far back as his "Star Wars" days in the '70s and as recently as last summer in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." But after the first hour or so of this morose drama I would have taken a Ford smirk just to liven up the pace a bit.
Solid support comes from Ray Liotta as an immigration officer who can change an alien's future with a simple stamp of approval on a green card application. Kramer's on track story-wise when Liotta's character accidently bumps into a struggling Australian actress who'll do anything, as it turns out, to get her application stamped.
Unfortunately, Kramer exploits the subplot (which is one of several) by relying on extremely graphic nudity to get his point across. The writing is adequate to communicate the girl's (Alice Eve) desperation without groveling in near soft porn to get his points across.
As for the hot button Southern border immigration issue, "Crossing Over" pales in comparison to "Maria Full of Grace," "Crash," "Bread and Roses" and even the Tommy Lee Jones directed "Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada."
None of those had Ford in the lead, of course. I suppose if you're a devoted Ford fan and you're in for a dismal drama, "Crossing Over" isn't a total waste of your movie dollars.
Just don't expect the patented Harrison Ford smirk.
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