Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
Harrison Ford has made some absolutely fucking atrocious choices over the past few years – you only need scroll past the weekly shelf at your local video store to verify that. From “Six Days, Seven Nights” to “Hollywood Homicide” and “Firewall” (“Honey, I need to borrow your Ipod”), the former big-screen great has seemingly been on a losing streak ever since he… well, ever since he started bumping uglies with Ally McBeal. No Offense darl, but you seem to have halted the big man’s golden run – tell me you aren’t picking his films for him? Please? Something’s definitely up, that’s all I can say. Need more proof? Well, let me just say Indiana Jones would never have been caught dead in ‘Old Man Trousers’. But let’s not get started on that overpriced sfx sizzle reel doubling as a fourth “Indiana Jones” movie, that’s too depressing to even think about.
The good news is, Ford’s latest film is very, very, solid. The bad news is, he’s merely one of several cast members in it – there’s not nearly enough of him in it. Which, again, could also be a testament to how likeable and commanding he is in the role of ‘’Crossing Over”’s good-guy immigration agent, Max Brogan.
Like quite a few other movies in recent years, “Crossing Over” tells the story of a cross-section of characters in Los Angeles, who in some way – in this case, through the issue of immigration – are linked.
Ford plays a philanthropic ICE agent whose seemingly no longer that fit to play the role of someone whose job it is to send illegal immigrants back home – whether their old home is a good place or not. In other words, he has a heart – we witness this when Brogan meets illegal immigrant Mireya Sanchez (Alice Braga) in a raid. She claims to have a young son at home. He nearly lets her go, and later regrets his decision not to.
Then there’s Denise Franklel (Ashley Judd), an immigration attorney who’s hell-bent on finding a home for a young Nigerian girl. She is married to scumbag INS official, Cole (Ray Liotta) – whose job it is to either approve or disapprove immigrants for green cards. Aussie Claire Shepard (Alice Eve), conveniently after a green card herself, is informed of Cole’s position when they smash into each other outside the INS headquarters. He offers her a deal – he’ll make sure her Green Card gets approved, if she agrees to be his booty call for the next two months. Desperate, Claire agrees.
Claire’s friend, Brit Gavin (Jim Sturgess), is trying to use his Jewish heritage as a way to win a permanent place in the states, trying to pass himself off as a religious scholar, even though he’s got no training as such.
Other characters mixed-up in the tale include Brogan’s partner, Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis, “Live Free or Die Hard”), whose family comes before anything; Bangladeshi teenager, Taslima (Summer Bishil), who gives a paper defending the motives of the 9/11 terrorists and brings immigration agents down on her family, and a Korean teenager (Justin Chon), whose father brought the family to America for more opportunities, only he’s not happy about the move, so rebels and joins a gang.
Wayne ‘Running Scared’ Kramer’s tough and rather moving portrayal of illegal immigrants, obviously influenced by “Babel” and “Traffic”, structurally-speaking, is a very entertaining and informative film. And those in it are just as good as the material.
Besides Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, and Cliff Curtis – all actors who’ve, like Ford, been wasted the last couple of years – are giving it their all here. Their performances mightn’t catch the attention of the Academy (if only because The Weinstein Company buried the film – like so many of their other releases – and thus, nobody, least of which the voting members of the Academy, got to see it) but they’ll remind both audiences and Hollywood what terrific actors they all (especially Ford!) are if given the right material… like they have been here.
Ford, for instance, fits the role of Max like a glove. The ICE agent is not an action hero here; he’s just a normal guy – a normal guy with a heart, a sense of right and wrong, and, er, no whip. Look, I don’t doubt he can still pull of the action hero thing – but quite frankly, he’s never going to be as successful running around and firing off a gun these days, as he was when he was thirty (as evidenced in last year’s “Crystal Skull”), so Ford’s wise for choosing to play a real guy for a change. You believe his plight every step of the way. And because it’s the ever-so-likeable Harrison Ford, there’s no way you can’t help but root for Max. He’s just a great guy who, unlike some of the other character’s Ford plays in his career, realizes he can’t save everyone.
Liotta is equally as impressive playing one of the film’s villains (of course). It’s great that Liotta’s been able to comfortably mock his angry-man persona in films like “Bee Movie” and “Observe and Report”, but that doesn’t mean he’s still not at his best when he’s taking his job seriously. Here, he’s right on the money. This is the kind of bastard character we haven’t seen Liotta play in years – and it’s great to have him back.
In addition there’s a slew of other great turns – Ashley Judd makes a triumphant return to the screen as a big-hearted defence attorney; Cliff Curtis immerses himself in the role of a policeman whose family ties ultimately become his undoing, ‘’Towelhead”’s Summer Bashil follows-up her memorable performance in Alan Ball’s portrait of prejudice with another controversial turn, and last but not least, newcomer, British actress Alice Eve (“Starter for Ten”) gives a brave (she’s nude for most of the movie) and difficult performance as the resolute but distressed alien from Down Under.
Besides Ford, another big name was originally onboard “Crossing Over” – Sean Penn. Penn actually filmed six scenes for the movie, playing an agent, but later demanded his scenes be cut from the movie after disagreeing with one of the film’s subplot’s (I don’t want to say which one, just that it involves a family killing one of their own). It’s a wonder the film worked out as well as it did, considering it lost one of it’s major players, and I’m guessing characters, in the editing room. Sure to have been just that bit better had Penn remained in it.
In addition, a downfall of Kramer’s film might be the last act – it feels a little rushed, and leaves a lot of threads hanging. You’ll know the one’s I’m referring to when you see it, but let’s just say, not everyone’s story is wrapped up as successfully as it could’ve been.
Hopefully this is the beginning of better things to come for Harrison Ford.
