JUST when you thought it was safe to avoid “message” pictures and Oscar hopefuls, here comes Wayne Kramer’s “Crossing Over,” a bid to create the “Crash” of illegal-immigration dramas.
Like that Oscar winner, this film is set in a Los Angeles where the characters in several story lines handily keep running into each other – although in this case they’re all stereotypes who spout tin-eared dialogue.
This is a movie with the courage to examine the pressing issue of whether hot blond Aussie starlets are sleeping with government agents – whom they meet in fender benders – to get green cards.
This probably wasn’t the intention, but the actress (Alice Eve, often gratuitously nude) comes off nearly as sleazy as the immigrations applications adjudicator (the less flatteringly photographed Ray Liotta) who is fabricating her reputation as an “international artist” in exchange for a little motel time.
In fairness to the South African born-Kramer (he directed the wonderful “The Cooler”), since this heavy-handed project wrapped production two years ago, “Crossing Over” reportedly has been worked over by many hands – and a small role with Sean Penn has been cut, supposedly at the actor’s request.
No such luck for Harrison Ford, who heads the ensemble with a self-effacing performance as Max Brogan, a sympathetic Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. No Aussie sexpots for Max: He spends much of the movie grimly trying to reunite an illegal Mexican (Alice Braga) caught in a sweatshop raid with her young son.
Max also plays a pivotal role in a family drama involving his partner Hamid (Cliff Curtis), whose wealthy Iranian-American clan finds inappropriate ways to express their embarrassment that his sexy younger sister (Melody Khazae) has become way too assimilated.
Hamid, in turn, just happens to be on the premises when a Korean teen (Justin Chon) and his pals rob a convenience store – and, wouldn’t you know, they’re both scheduled to attend the same naturalization ceremony the next day.
The most potentially interesting story line centers on a Bangladeshi teen (Summer Bishil of “Towelhead”) whose family faces being separated by authorities after she writes a school essay in which she says she understands the motives of the 9/11 hijackers.
But the issues are not explored in any depth. They get less time than the movie’s comic-relief story line, wherein the Aussie actress’ British musician boyfriend (Jim Sturgess) poses as an expert in Judaism to get his green card.
The Bangladeshi teen’s lawyer is played by fourth-billed Ashley Judd, who is barely in the movie despite another subplot in which she wants to adopt an abandoned African child.
In the kind of contrivance that “Crossing Over” reeks of, the lawyer has to overcome the objections of her husband – the government agent who’s having sex with the Aussie actress.
CROSSING OVER
Should be deported.
Running time: 113 minutes. Rated R (gratuitous nudity, profanity, violence). At the E-Walk, the Lincoln Square, the Cinema 1 and the Union Square.