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.

The Title of this Film has a Dual Meaning. "Frontera" Translated Means "Border" and Frontier, as in the "Wild Frontier" can also be Inferred.Ed Harris and Amy Madigan are Seniors Living the "Good Life", and are Good People, on Their Ranch. It Happens that the Land "Borders" the Mexican Line and is a Pathway for Illegals to Make Their Way to the Promised Land. This is a Story about the Folks on Both Sides of the Border and Their Inter-Connectivity that Results from some Unintended Consequences. It Shows the Difficulty in Trusting the "Coyotes" and the also Difficult Trek that Many Make and are at the Mercy of the Desert and the Indigenous Population that Range from Quietly Indignant to Hostile.It is a Rich Little Movie that is Underplayed and Softly Explores the Situations from a Number of Perspectives and isn't Preachy. Effective and Engaging with Strong Acting and Excellent Cinematography, the Movie May be Slight in Solutions, but is Neutral in its Politics and Therefore is Commendable. Overall, it's Worth a Watch and is Nothing too Deep and for some that May Not be what is Needed in this Current, Divisive Political Landscape. The Movie Doesn't Take Sides and might Leaves some Viewers with a Frustrating Experience. But as a Modern Drama it is quite Good.

Miguel (Michael Pena) & Jose (Michael Ray Escamilla) have crossed the border from Mexico to the US in an attempt to look for work. Once they cross the border, they stumble across Olivia (Amy Madigan) who is out riding her horse. Olivia offers the 2 men some water and advises them that a lorry arrives and picks up those that aren't afraid of hard work. Shortly after, 3 youths begin firing at the 2 Mexicans in an attempt to scare them. However, things go wrong when Olivia comes back to investigate what's happening and her horse gets scared by the gun fire and throws Olivia to the ground and she hits her head on a rock. Tragically, Olivia dies and Miguel is the prime suspect in her death as he was the only one at the scene when her husband Roy (Ed Harris) finds her.The premise is a fairly good one on paper unfortunately once the first 15-20 minutes are out of the way, the only things that the writers serve up are boredom and credibility problems. Let me explain...At the start of the film, Miguel is arrested and charged with first degree murder. Now in the 'real' world this would only happen in the face of real evidence. Which begs the question - what evidence do the police have against Miguel? Oh yeah... he was there.. that's it. Circumstantial evidence? They never have any proof that he killed her yet they're still able to bring him in and keep him imprisoned??? On what planet would that happen? It's amazing that Miguel never filed for wrongful arrest.Jose is an important witness to the incident that occurred, but is only featured in the first half of the film (strange considering how important that he was in the context of the narrative).Another problem with this film is that it's so boring; I think it's really disappointing that we have to wait an hour before we actually see any detective work; it's at this point when former sheriff Roy starts to examine the scene of his wife's death and finds the bullets lodged in the sand near the crime scene, he also manages to work out exactly where the shooters were positioned (quite how he manages to do this with such accuracy is never explained). He then gets grief from the actual sheriff for moving the bullets from the crime scene. I then thought 'Well if you morons had done your job right then you would have found the bullets and figured everything out anyway'.We are then treated to a sub plot involving Miguel's wife being kidnapped and held to ransom which for me was unnecessary, added little to the film and felt like it was included merely to pad out the running time.Later in the film it turns out that the guy who shot at Olivia was the sheriff's son - at this point I thought 'Great' - I hope those punks get what they deserve. What really annoyed me is that we never got any closure on the most fundamental issue of the film - what happened to Sean and his friends? Did they get their comeuppance? But no, the writers decided not to bother telling us which left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Don't get me wrong, ambiguous endings can be OK sometimes, but when there's no closure on the 1 thing that held my interest in the film it made me angry.I've always been someone who can forgive credibility problems if a film can do one basic thing; entertain, but this film couldn't even get that right. It bored me to tears, had a very disjointed narrative, and it also had a very unsatisfying ending.Ending on a positive note, I thought that Harris and Pena were terrific which is a real testament to both actors when you look at the shocking material that they had to work with.

Having worked as a photojournalist in New Mexico I am always a bit hesitant to watch movies purporting to depict the "Border Problem." Thus when I ran into this movie on Netflix I was at first hesitant to give it a try. Happily, my reservations proved unfounded as this turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen in the past year or two. The lead role was virtually made for Ed Harris and his stoic, unwordy, acting style fits into the theme like a hand fits into a custom made glove...just right! Residents of the American Southwest are not known for wordiness and Ed's quiet although intense acting more than rings true throughout...lending an air of authenticity all too rarely encountered these days.Michael Peña, Amy Madigan, and Eva Longoria were all excellent and the cast fit together as well as the hand fit the custom made glove referred to earlier.As far as comments made by other reviewers relating to the movie sidestepping the more controversial aspects of the current immigration scene I'm not sure I agree. It's a complex issue and any movie attempting to render solutions will fall flat. Surely it's more than enough to attempt to put a human face on what's become a political hot potato and media frenzy bullseye and this movie more than succeeded in doing that.