The film manages to sustain a general air of dull preachiness without ever having much to say for itself.
Comment
08/04/09
Crossing Over (2009)
16
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:102
Fresh:16
Rotten:86
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: Crossing Over is flagrant and heavy-handed about a situation that deserves more deliberate treatment, and joins its characters with coincidences that strain believability.
Theatrical Release:Feb 27, 2009 Limited
Box Office: $402,469
Synopsis: The struggle to achieve resident alien status, or gain full-blown citizenship in the United States, provides some thought-provoking material in this feature from director Wayne Kramer(THE COOLER).... [More]
Starring: Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Cliff Curtis
Director: Wayne Kramer
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Reviews for Crossing Over
It's compassionate, decent-minded and highly watchable, but as angry, heavy-handed and overemphatic as a rubber stamp crashing down on an immigration form.
08/04/09
Being over-stuffed and heavy-handed are not even Crossing Over’s biggest problems. That dubious honour goes to an absolute failure to address its nominal subject-matter in any meaningful way.
07/31/09
Any one of these stories, if properly fleshed out and shorn of contrivance, would have made for a perfectly serviceable film. Instead, we have lots of hysterical little bits of nothing much.
07/31/09
While the film certainly has some viable, provocative points to make about the US's attitudes to migrants and the labyrinthine horrors of getting citizenship, it lacks the subtlety and eloquence it really needs to succeed.
07/31/09
For anyone who felt that Crash was too subtle and self-effacing, I recommend Crossing Over, a multi-stranded, heavy handed exploration of the issues surrounding immigration and US citizenship.
07/31/09
Crass, contrived, tackily salacious and politically loaded in the most insidious way, this dodgy piece of nonsense purports to be an ensemble, multi-stranded drama in the style of Traffic or Crash.
07/31/09
The whole exercise feels exploitative.
07/31/09
Well-acted but increasingly either melodramatic or just plain dull.
07/31/09
Crossing Over builds purposefully before derailing completely in its finale.
07/31/09
Although it has moments of poignancy, his sledgehammer approach is sometimes off-putting and risible.
07/31/09
Hampered by wayward direction and a skin-deep script, this won’t be following Crash to the Academy podium. If you loved Haggis’ Oscar victor, you might squeeze an iota of enlightenment out of Kramer’s copycat melodrama.
07/31/09
Writer-director Wayne Kramer insists on trying to tell us all the way through what we should feel. Yet, by the end, it's not clear what he's trying to say: are U.S. immigration laws unfair, unnecessary or badly enforced?
07/31/09
The whole thing's about as enjoyable as a holiday to Guantanamo Bay. Less a movie and more a two-hour finger wag.
07/31/09
You can be too right-on. And that's the problem with this smug Hollywood multi-strand drama about immigration that sweats self-righteousness from every pore.
07/31/09
As with many multi-character pieces, it's somewhat unbalanced by its competing storylines, and its lapses into sentimentality seem inevitable, but Kramer deserves credit for taking on a touchy subject.
07/31/09
Some stories are more convincing than others in this sprawling blend of thriller, melodrama and social drama.
07/31/09
The script is occasionally heavy-handed, but its range of immigration experiences is impressive and you forgive the odd bit of speechifying because the storytelling is both engaging and provocative.
07/31/09
The film is well-made and benefits from a very strong cast, but it's both overly worthy and rather pushy about its perspective.
07/31/09
It's tired, preachy and about as thought-provoking as a Blackpool hen party howling We Are The World on karaoke.
07/31/09
Latest News for Crossing Over
June 08, 2009:
RT on DVD: Gran Torino, Crossing Over, Nobel Son Exclusive Look
This week on DVD, celebrate the big screen heroics of two former movie heroes (Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, Harrison Ford in Crossing Over) or watch Clive Owen and Naomi Watts... More...
March 01, 2009:
Harrison Ford does a very different sort of reluctant, discombobulated thinking man's action hero this time around, a kinder, gentler immigration cop not into raids, and mocked by his colleagues as an INS girlie guy. 
More...
February 26, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Jonas Brothers Fizzles
This week at the movies, we've got teenybop pop (Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience, starring Jonas Brothers) and a video game adaptation (Street Fighter: The Legend of... More...
November 26, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
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