"Crossing Over": well-intended but awkward

Like too many "Crash" wannabes, "Crossing Over" gets an A for effort and a C-plus for execution.

Los Angeles is seen as the xenophobic capital of the United States: a gruesome melting pot that's largely hostile to immigrants and minorities who (thanks to plenty of characters and a few coincidences) turn out to have more in common than they imagine.

If there's a central character, it's immigration agent Max Brogan (Harrison Ford), whose conscience won't leave him alone — especially after he witnesses the roundup of a single Mexican mother who faces deportation without her child. His partner, Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis), comes from a conservative family that generates a different set of problems.

A small-time Australian actress (Alice Eve) has a British boyfriend (Jim Sturgess), but sleeps with an applications adjudicator (Ray Liotta) in order to get a green card. His defense-attorney wife (Ashley Judd) tries to help an Iranian family that runs into FBI trouble. Their 15-year-old daughter (Summer Bishil) creates an essay about the 9/11 hijackers that could have been written by Bill Maher.

The lighter moments, most of them involving Sturgess' character, Gavin, work best. He's trying to get a green card by presenting himself as an Orthodox Jew, and he works so hard at it that some suspense is generated. For once, we care about the outcome.

Less successful are the scenes between Liotta and Eve, who rarely get beyond the transparent types they're asked to play, and a naturalization episode that ham-handedly uses "The Star-Spangled Banner" and a giant American flag for ironic effect.

The writer-director, Wayne Kramer, earned some fans for his 2003 sleeper, "The Cooler," which earned an Oscar nomination for Alec Baldwin. He's certainly good with actors, but he tends to push the big tear-jerker moments.

Kramer is also fond of swooping aerial shots that emphasize the boxy buildings and detention centers that litter the California landscape and trap his characters. He seems to be saying that they can't win in this environment, whether they're as world-weary as Brogan or as cynical as the actress who all but volunteers to prostitute herself.

But (spoiler alert) the movie does hold out some hope for people who luck out and/or won't let the system drag them down. As a result, the doom-laden visual scheme begins to seem inappropriate and a tad pretentious.

John Hartl: johnhartl@yahoo.com