Frontera de fuego

This film stars one of the biggest Latin stars of Hollywood cinema, Zoe Saldaña. Her performance as Esmeralda Rojas, someone forced to illegally cross the border for killing an abuser, does not disappoint. I really liked the way she pronounces Spanish and her fluid transition between this language and English gives a lot of strength to her dialogues in both languages. Also very prominent and powerful is the presence of Adria Arjona, sensual and expressive in the role of the young mother Yadira, and romantic interest of the Border Police member, Garrett Hedlund (Shipp), in a role of someone who is being pushed to the limits of his endurance when facing the conflicts of opposing loyalties. Chris Coy, as Dobbins, stands out as the tough law enforcement officer who is on the verge of sadism and who is in charge of instructing his rookie partner, Shipp, in the art of ignoring the human misery of those who are exploited to enter the United States illegally and treating them with the appropriate distance and harshness.

The film was directed by Marco Perego who also shared credits with Rick Rapozza in writing the script. Excellent work for someone who wants to communicate with art a drama of our current world. I am neither American nor Mexican, I am Argentinean so I am far from this border drama. The reflection that comes to me after having seen the film is that everything seems like a game with perverse rules destined for good intentions to always fail and where human suffering never takes precedence over the role that each party must play in the development of the action. Once the drama is over, the only thing that persists are the inflexible rules of the game that wait to receive a new round of participants to crush them with their rigidity. A truly frustrating situation and very inauspicious for the supposed greatness, compassion and flexibility of the human mind.

I watched The Absence of Eden with Zoe Saldaña on Hulu... I know she wants to represent the Latino experience and the difficult situations within their lives, but I don't think she really achieves the result she's aiming for.

The film is good overall, but it feels like it doesn't quite connect with the audience.

There's quality in the production and the intention is clear, but emotionally, it falls a bit short.

The Absence of Eden

In a divided border town, a Mexican woman escaping violence and an ICE agent find themselves drawn together. The Absence of Eden is unflinching in its portrayal of human trafficking and the exploitation of undocumented people - as well as the different reactions from those in charge of keeping order. In his feature debut, writer/director Marco Perego uses poetic and religious metaphors to heighten the plight of those seeking safety and better lives, but he comes off too heavy-handedly at times. He lacks subtlety on a divisive issue that's anything but black-and-white.

Esmeralda "Esme" Rojas (Zoë Saldaña) performs a lap dance on a sleazy cartel member at a seedy Mexican strip club. She pushes back against his advances for something more until he won't take no for an answer. Across the border in Texas, Shipp (Garrett Hedlund) ignores phone calls from his dad - with whom he's been estranged - while going through training to become an ICE agent. Shipp meets his new partner, Evans (Chris Coy), who is a hardened veteran that hates all undocumented immigrants and takes the rookie under his wing.

In Mexico, Esme tearfully kisses her abuela goodbye after collecting all of her belongings; she hopes her life savings will be enough to pay the coyote. Esme has to leave right now before the cartel finds her. In Texas, Shipp drinks by himself at a bar while thinking about Evans' behavior and attitude on their first day together. He then sees beautiful raven-haired Yadira (Adria Arjona) dancing with another man; there's an instant spark between them.

Esme's journey through the desert starts off on a scary note: The coyote "wants to wet his beak" with an extra payment for his services. A terrified Esme hides among the group huddled together. The disgusting coyote starts moving closer to a young girl (Maeve Garay) clutching her scared mother (Morningstar Angeline). Esme pleads with him to stop; he's impressed by her bravery. Does she speak English? Esme shakes in fear, but answers yes. He gives her a card with a number on it - if she makes it across the border, his cousin will have a job waiting for her. In Texas, Shipp gets ready for his first raid alongside Evans; even so, his mind is still on Yadira when Evans unleashes violent action.

Perego - who is Saldaña's husband and producing partner - shows the terrible risks faced by women and girls as they attempt illegal passage into America: They're at the mercy of rape, robbery and possible murder. Yet the terrors don't stop if they succeed. Esme becomes more indebted to the gang that got her across; she's their servant, forced to do whatever they want. Where can she go? Who will aid her? The American police aren't coming to save her; they'll only send her back to the cartel's revenge.

As an officer of the law, Shipp battles with his conscience. He doesn't know Yadira's immigration status; their growing relationship could be completely opposed to his sworn duty. Every Mexican is an enemy in Evans' eyes - so what'll he do if Yadira turns out to be undocumented? Shipp knows he could ruin his career by making the wrong decision. Love isn't all-conquering for either Evans or the US government.

Right from the beginning, The Absence of Eden makes its position known. Undocumented individuals desperately need assistance while ICE are heartless brutes in their merciless duties. This is a black and white distinction that is entirely unfair. Evans is not called a bad apple spoiling the bunch. His ruthlessness mirrors the evil Mexican cartel and drug dealers controlling Esme. That's one step too far.

Every day they go to work, border patrol agents risk their lives at ground zero of a human catastrophe. They do not make immigration policy. To lump their tactics together with those of deplorable criminal organizations is a false and wrong comparison. ICE agents are not raping and murdering undocumented people en masse. The sad truth is that people come to America because they think better lives exist here - that is not always true - Esme serves as a good example; she would have been worse off had she stayed in Mexico.

Perego marries astronomical imagery of space and stars with Esme\'s religious belief in God will provide salvation - but that's just me guessing; Perego has no clear intention here, it seems like. One could assume the title refers to Earth as paradise lost for the illegal aliens; this is an intellectual part of the movie which only serves to confuse more than anything else.

The Absence of Eden evokes such strong emotions because you care about Esme's story being so terrible. It's all true, every last bit - what she goes through is honest, real life at its most viciousness - however there should've been equal time given on both sides: protectors being mainly honorable; border workers shouldn't be universally condemned for doing their jobs but instead treated fairly

review written by artist jayakumar jrain.

I never rate movies, but this has to be said!

The description of the film and even the shortened description don't hold true...The main characters actually never work together to save a girl, they barely cross paths in this sloppily put-together movie that didn't know what it wanted to be and left the viewer sad and confused.

The topic is complicated and should feel sad, but the movie was just bad, good acting though. At times there was this hopeful artsy element, but it felt random and was not consistent at all.

Go ahead and skip this one when you're looking for a good drama movie to watch on Hulu.

I didn't have too much to say about this, it just felt incredibly short. Looking at the themes and scenarios the movie explored, the movie does so only at surface level. I think the intro to Esmeralda raised the tension quite quickly, we're introduced to her in a pretty dicey scenario. It gave insight into her decision to leave. There wasn't too much I disliked about it. One specific thing was the pep talks by the coyote - like he's a good kind hearted coyote? But it wasn't something that bothered me too much. The story is alright, tragic but not particularly moving. I don't think the stuff about the grandma added much to the film, all the stories and narrations from her diary. The movie had pretty good and consistent atmosphere, a dark tone. The big issue is that it just ends out of nowhere, like I was in and out the theatre. Even the subplots end abruptly, logically but abruptly. Like Adria Arjona character feels like an important part of the movie then she's just no longer there. The conflicts the movie has are resolved pretty quickly, made the movie anticlimactic. A few twists and turns wouldn't have hurt the movie. Otherwise not bad, nothing special.