Crossing Over

A shameless, self-conscious imitation of Crash, this Los Angeles-set drama makes a patently obvious stab at social significance by tackling the knotty problem of illegal immigration. But writer-director Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over gives us stereotypical characters blurting clichéd dialogue, ultimately trivializing the subject matter and turning the film into an endurance contest. The big-name ensemble cast includes Harrison Ford (playing a sympathetic Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent), Ray Liotta (a decidedly unsympathetic Immigration applications adjudicator who uses his position to get fetching female foreign nationals into bed), Ashley Judd (the lawyer who decides to adopt an abandoned African child while representing a Bangladeshi teen threatened with deportation), and Sean Penn (well, no, actually, since he wisely insisted that his entire performance be cut from the finished film). Ultimately, Crossing Over gives the long arm of coincidence a stretch that even the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards would find taxing, while also taking a heavy-handed approach to the various issues surrounding immigration reform. Not recommended. (E. Hulse)