-By Shirley Sealy

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American writer-director Wayne Kramer (originally from South Africa) has stuffed Crossing Over with a wide but predictable spectrum of the ethnic/national groups who typically vie for American citizenship. You name it, you got it—Muslim or Jew, Asian or Australian, Mexican or Bangladeshi or Iranian. In substance, if not in style, the multi-layered, cross-cutting Crossing Over greatly resembles the critically acclaimed Crash and Traffic. For starters, all three are set in Los Angeles—which is, apparently, a boiling cauldron of diverse peoples, many of whom are illegally in residence.

Harrison "Bankable Star" Ford plays Max Brogan, a gruff but soft-hearted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who has seen so much unwarranted abuse of wannabe immigrants, he's become quite sympathetic to their plight. During a raid on a sweatshop, Max tries to protect Mireya (Alice Braga), who begs not to be sent back to Mexico without her son. Although he can do nothing to prevent her abrupt deportation, Max figures he can and will do something for her son—a storyline that weaves in and out of the drama.

Meanwhile, Denise (Ashley Judd), an immigration defense attorney and another softie, visits an orphaned African girl who's living in detention until someone adopts her—or until she, too, is deported. As it happens, Denise's husband Cole (Ray Liotta) also works in immigration, in charge of approving or denying green card applications. And, as it happens, while out and about one day, he has a fender-bender with a young and beautiful Australian girl, Claire (Alice Eve), an aspiring actress who—wait for it—is so desperate for a green card she agrees to “pay” Cole for approving her application by meeting him in sleazy motel rooms over a period of three months. Naturally, Claire's boyfriend Gavin (Jim Sturgess), a musician from England, doesn't take kindly to this. Gavin, funnily enough, finds a fairly easy a way to qualify for legal residency—by becoming a religious instructor at a Hebrew school. Never mind that he's had no interest in his religion until now.

But religion is a very serious matter for 15-year-old Taslima (Summer Bishil), a Bangladeshi who's so devoted to her Muslim faith she begins consulting extremist Islamic websites, where she learns to “understand” why the 9/11 terrorists did what they did. Saying as much in her high-school classroom brings on a task force of FBI agents, who “find”' evidence that Taslima may be toying with the idea of becoming a suicide bomber. To her horror, Taslima faces deportation to a country she's never known, and permanent separation from her family—all because of what she saw as her American right to speak freely.

Other immigrant groups bring even more serious trouble on themselves. Take the Korean family whose son Yong (Justin Chon) joins a gang of violent Korean thugs, and the Iranian family, whose American-born daughter Zahra (Melody Khazae) flouts her father's strict interpretation of Islamic law by dressing and acting as she pleases—thereby risking an ultimate punishment.

The brazen Zahra's brother Hamid (Cliff Curtis) is one of one of the film's most compelling characters—thanks to Curtis' deeply felt performance. Hamid works as ICE agent Max’s partner and, unexpectedly, he becomes the hero in a fatal shootout in a Korean convenience store. The only Korean thug left standing is the aforementioned Yong—but his survival comes at a price: He must listen to a ridiculously patriotic pep talk from the emotionally rattled Hamid. It is here—late in the game, thank goodness—that Crossing Over goes completely off the rails. And poor Hamid is again in the spotlight during the most cringe-inducing scene of all, at the swearing-in ceremony, where at least a few of the stereotypically diverse characters whose lives we've been following finally get to become U.S. citizens.

While Crossing Over has its share of groans, it also has a few laughs—and even more moments of believable heartbreak. Several of the most effective scenes—and the most effective performances—come from the three young foreign-born actresses, Braga, Eve and Bishil. Oddly enough, although their characters are misguided, they—unlike the male thugs and cheats—are basically innocent of wrongdoing. Yet it's the women who get the short end of the stick, for not one of them is allowed, in the end, to stand up and pledge allegiance. Is it possible that the man who wrote and directed this grossly unsubtle movie was trying to make a subtle point—that, on top of everything else, U.S. immigration laws are shockingly misogynistic? Or do beautiful young women simply make better victims? Just wondering.