Bordertown

NEW YORK (CNS) -- An ongoing series of real life crimes in northern Mexico provides the basis for "Bordertown" (THINKFilm). The investigative drama built on these events, though necessarily bleak, is worthy and absorbing.

At the behest of her editor and mentor, George Morgan (Martin Sheen), up-and-coming Chicago reporter Lauren Adrian (Jennifer Lopez, who also helped produce) sets out to investigate a rash of unsolved rapes and murders committed against female factory workers in the border city of Juarez. Already on the scene is her former colleague and old flame, Alfonso Diaz (Antonio Banderas).

Reuniting professionally -- though not personally -- with the now-married Diaz, Lauren soon discovers that neither the local authorities nor the owners of the factories have any interest in putting a stop to the attacks. One of the few people championing the young women's cause is wealthy humanitarian Teresa Casillas (Sonia Braga).

Lauren's commitment to the victims becomes personal when she encounters Eva Jimenez (Maya Zapata). Raped and strangled and left for dead, Eva had managed to dig herself out of a shallow grave in the desert and stumble back to civilization.

As Lauren and Diaz unite to try to protect Eva, both reporters find their lives at risk. Eva, though given shelter by Casillas, is also still in danger, since she wants to pursue justice and testify against her assailants. (Eva is shown to be a devout Catholic who trusts in the Blessed Mother to protect her.)

Writer-director Gregory Nava's film doesn't always avoid melodrama and offers an oversimplified indictment of globalization. Strong performances, on the other hand, especially from Zapata and Lopez, reap emotional engagement.

As Eva glimpses the safe and easy lifestyle of her vastly wealthier fellow citizens, typified by Casillas' carefully tended garden, "Bordertown," which has previously exposed us to Juarez's slums and squalor, transcends politics to show us the human context of these tragedies.

The film contains scenes of brutal rape and attempted rape, nonmarital sexual activity, rear and upper female nudity, graphic images of blood and corpses, some rough, crude and profane language and occasional crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops