After crossing the border illegally for work, Miguel, a hard-working father and devoted husband, finds himself wrongfully accused of murdering a former sheriff’s wife. After learning of his imprisonment, Miguel’s pregnant wife tries to come to his aid and lands in the hands of corrupt coyotes who hold her for ransom. Dissatisfied with the police department’s investigation, the former sheriff tries to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and discovers disturbing evidence that will destroy one family’s future, or tear another’s apart.
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
As Good As It Gets
Admirable film.
it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
Good thing about Frontera: It has Ed Harris. And he plays his part decent. But everyone else's performance is somewhere between below average and bad. The story is weak, missing any tension or suspense. Former sheriff loses his wife on an incident, because some teenagers where playing with guns to scare away mexicans. One of the mexicans gets caught and blamed for murder. The mexicans wife travels to save him but ends as a hostage for ransom. That could be exciting or at least sad, but the characters remain very shallow and you don't feel like taking part in their misery and struggle, left aside feel any concern for them.Then the mexicans wife is freed, they find the shells and confront a teenager, who start crying and confesses instantly. What a twist! The only real surprise was that Ed Harris talked with the teenagers father, showing some understanding for the fact that it was actually only a very unfortunate accident.To sum up: Can a good actor alone carry a otherwise weak movie? He can try. And it prevents the movie from being terrible. But it's also far from good. Not even average. Frontera left me with the feeling that it wasn't really worth the time.
I guess the demise of Saturday morning B fare from movie screens since the sixties, has done all of these films in. It's really a shame, this was a great flick.I don't understand how a film can get a go ahead and not have predistribution rights all over it.It just seems dumb unless it was destined from the start to hit the streamers and $5 video bin from get go.I am just glad I caught it on NETFLIX.That and Hulu seem to be the elephant graveyard.It's like data mining for movies.
For most, I don't know if the story will warrant the high score that I give it but for me it does. Its very relevant to the times.The struggle with what is right, what you could just let happen (wrong) and the crime story behind it all is very interesting to me.The old sheriff is true to his morals. He pursues the story to its end. I am not sure if Ed Harris is my favorite, but he is good in this. Michael P is just great. Some of the film is almost too hard to watch. The struggles of folks represented are just awful. Something to keep in mind when topics about these folks come up.
This film is not a documented case history of a recent event. Rather, it is a dramatization of troubles along the southern border of New Mexico. A couple problems come to mind. First, because Miguel was eventually identified as fleeing the scene, the Sheriff concludes that he is culpable in the death of Olivia. Was there a coroner's report? What was the cause of death? Did the film intend to portray the Sheriff as a simpleton? Roy disclosed to him that he rushed to the scene because he heard rifle shots, yet no firearms were found there. How is that evidence to be explained in the Sheriff's scenario? Second, asking when the group would cross the border, Paulina learns that they had just done so. She then turns to glance back at a pitiful 3-strand barbed wire fence. Later, the Sheriff blames illegals for what happened to Olivia, and Roy blames not changing the gun locker combination. Shouldn't the pitiful fence be worthy of some blame? What if there were better border security? What if the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government secured the border, issued appropriate Green Cards, implemented legal immigration, and enforced existing law as it should? Answer: illegal immigration would be a trickle instead of a flood, there would be more order and less chaos, and there would be less crime against persons and property. This film is really an indictment of the U.S. Government.