Each of the story lines were engaging enough, some employing deep emotions to argue with their cases.But what seemed to be a common theme here is how power can be either used to do what is probably morally right or abusing it for personal gain. The movie's cast is led by Harrison Ford who stars as Max Brogan, an ICE agent. This is the most unusual character that Ford must have done in his lifetime. However he did give an excellent performance.
There's an illegal Mexican woman, Mireya Sanchez, played by Alice Braga who begs Max to look after her young son in the care of unfriendly relatives. A Jewish musician, Gavin Kossef, played by Jim Sturgess who's waiting to qualify for residency, his Australian girlfriend Claire Shepard played by Alice Eve, an Hollywood actress wannabe who had granted 2 months worth of on-demand sexual favours to an Immigration official Cole Frankel played by Ray Liotta in exchange for a green card. Cole's wife Deniese played by Ashley Judd wants to adopt a child placed in a detention centre, who meets Taslima Jahangir played by Summer Bishil whose essay failed to condemn the terrorists of 9/11 and gotten her and her family into hot soup. Then there's a Korean family who is waiting to be naturalized whose eldest son got involved with thugs. And finally Hamid Baraheri played by Cliff Curtis, Max's partner whose family cannot stand his estranged sister whom they feel is a disgrace of their values, tradition and custom by adopting the lifestyle of Americans, yet strangely ironic as they too pursue to be American citizens.
With all these story lines involved the director somehow manges to put in a little murder mystery in the movie as well. In the end this certainly is one of the powerful immigrant stories that I have seen.
My Rating: 3/5
