Crossing Over (R16)

copyright Kennedy/Marshall

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This multistory, multicultural drama tries to do for United States immigration issues what Traffic did for drugs and Crash did for racial prejudice.

Its congested half-dozen tales become somewhat of a tangled knot, with tenuous ties, suggesting the screenplay could have been more effective by dropping one or two.

The characters are a melting pot of nationalities, races and creeds caught up in a paranoid post-9/11 America: an illegal immigrant Mexican mum and child, an Australian wannabe actress willing to be a sex slave for a green card (chance for gratuitous nudity), a Korean family whose son gets pulled into a gang robbery (chance for gratuitous violence), an atheist Jew finding religion to get residential status, a Muslim teenager facing deportation for understanding terrorism, an African orphan child and an Iranian family.

The stars are Harrison Ford as a compassionate immigration agent, Ray Liotta as a sleazy immigration official and Ashley Judd as an immigration defence lawyer. But the best is Kiwi Cliff Curtis as Ford's Iranian partner with a family problem.