In Frontera first-time filmmaker Michael Berry focuses his camera on a bumper sticker affixed to the back of a pick-up truck parked in the desert just long enough to read that there are “Americans doing the job the government won’t.” Just as quickly the camera cuts to presumably said patriot training a sniper rifle at the head of a Mexican cutting along an Arizona trail.
It’s a not-so-subtle image that certainly gets its point across but Berry’s forthright feature debut may be slightly too on-the-nose. If nothing else it surely illustrates the inflammatory immigration issue that (thankfully) isn’t nearly as violent in Canada as it is along the border of the southwestern United States.
Starring Michael Peña (American Hustle End of Watch) as young Miguel — a father-to-be and devoted husband to wife Paulina (an almost unrecognizable Eva Longoria) the Hispanic pair decide it’s best for Miguel to slip into America illegally in order to make some money for their forthcoming family.
Once he crosses over along with a seemingly pathetic illegal escort the duo find themselves face to face with the hospitable horse-riding wife of a retired lawman. She’s quick to provide thirst-quenching water advice and (for the sake of foreshadowing character development) point out that absent husband Roy is a “good man.”
The two men can barely muster a muchas gracias before she becomes the unintentional collateral damage of a trio of redneck trigger-happy teens.
In the impending chaos along comes Roy (played by the great Ed Harris) to catch Miguel holding the horse’s reins and see that the earnest alien is locked up for the crime. As he moved through the blame and mourning stages at a meteoric pace Roy — still whip-smart as the day he hung up his badge — smells a desert rat and begins sniffing around.
If that sounds like the prelude to a pretty tangled mystery it’s not. Instead the predictable premise plays more like a slow-burn study of its two main rivals who in effect are never as conflicted about each other’s motives as the film would suggest. In fact Berry (who co-wrote the script) missteps by quelling the targeted rage that such a mortal miscue would certainly incite. That said casting solid thespians like Peña and Harris was a smart move as they balance restraint between overexcited scenes of sand snipers thereby keeping the story from spilling into melodramatic schmaltz.
For a film that resides so heavily on the breathtaking vistas of Arizona’s arid southern border much of the dramatic strife is juxtaposed by the intimacy between Miguel and Roy and a subplot that sees Paulina slip into America to help her husband which while slightly distracting from the main story is intended to explore broader issues about migrant abuse that are simply terrifying.
It’s not revelatory by any means but within its wandering narratives Berry at least makes a measurable accomplishment at raising awareness of an important social issue. After all for every fictional over-the-top sharpshooter aiming his rifle at an illegal migrant in Frontera there are actual human beings dealing with complicated issues on both sides of the American border.
FRONTERA directed by Michael Berry starring Ed Harris Eva Longoria and Michael Peña now playing.
