"Ford, Curtis, Braga, and Eve breathe much life into their roles, but everything around them just doesn't live up to the promise of the subject matter."

Crossing Over has a very simple thematic point: as a foreigner, getting into America and remaining here is often a traumatic, demoralizing experience. To express this, writer-director Wayne Kramer delivers a cross section of disparate characters involved with immigration and deportation, from those trying illegally to get into and/or remain in the country, to families legally pursuing residency, to the men and women who daily enforce and battle against immigration laws. Take, for example, tired, nearly broken Immigration & Customs Enforcement agent Max Brogan (Harrison Ford) and his trusted partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis), whose Iranian parents are about to be naturalized. Max recently returned illegal worker Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga) to Mexico and, in a crisis of conscience, tracks down her son and returns him to her family, too. Then there's Denise Frankel (Ashley Judd), an immigration defense attorney fighting to keep a Nigerian orphan in the country long enough to be adopted; she's married to green card adjudicator Cole (Ray Liotta), a d-bag who's blackmailing Aussie actress Claire Shepard (Alice Eve) into regularly screwing him in hotel rooms in exchange for her green card. Claire's relentless pursuit of said green card has so far kept her from being with the man she loves, English musician Gavin Kossef (Jim Sturgess), since that relationship would prevent her from a possible marriage to an American and permanent residency. Gavin, meanwhile, is trying to exploit his Jewish heritage -- despite current atheistic feelings -- to earn his green card as a religious worker.

Does all this seem a bit much? That's because it is -- and there are still THREE MORE MAJOR STORYLINES! Crossing Over tries desperately to be this year's Crash -- there are even countless overhead shots of freeways that connect and divide us -- but Kramer, in all his attempts at ensemble profundity, fails to recognize that Crash is not a good movie. In fact, it's a terrible movie. Sure, maybe you like it because of its faux-intellectual arguments that leave you feeling like you watched something important, but keep in mind Crash is sometimes taught in college courses as what not to do when telling a story on the big screen. Crash, you see, is contrived, preachy, and predictable. Crossing Over is all this, but to a greater degree. One assumes, from the outset, that the importance of the subject matter predicates an important movie, but Kramer delivers anything but. The point I'll bring up next to support this opinion might seem like a petty one at first, but it's indicative of a larger problem. Consider the character of Claire, who weeps violently after every seedy encounter with Cole. She is essentially prostituting herself out for her dreams of American residency and Hollywood success -- to become the next "Nicole" or "Naomi," Cole knows -- so this makes sense. What doesn't is what precedes these shower breakdowns: post-coital conversations between Claire and Cole, in which Claire lies about fully nude, as comfortable as you'd be with a lover of several years, and the whole time is shot in such a way as to make audiences drool over the Aussie's perfect body. I mean, why did I feel like Kramer was trying to turn me on when I was supposed to feel disgusted? That's just bad directing.

The rest of Crossing Over seems just as confused, a mishmash of storylines that forcefully fit together and climax at a massive swearing-in ceremony that feels patriotic for ten seconds, until it's interrupted by the gotcha moment of the movie's biggest -- and underwhelming -- mystery. Ford, Curtis, Braga, and Eve breathe much life into their roles, but everything around them just doesn't live up to the promise of the subject matter.

Grade: D