Last modified on Tue 25 May 2021 07.32 EDT
Just north of the border between the United States and Mexico, the Greer family â patriarch Bill (Frank Grillo), mom Monica (Andie MacDowell), and grown sons Lucas (Alex MacNicoll) and Jackson (Jake Allyn) â work the land as ranchers. They raise cattle, ride horses and, being red-blooded Texan types, play sports â in Jacksonâs case well enough that heâs got a chance to go pro as a baseball player. They also spend the odd evening riding the range with a vigilante militia group, rounding up immigrants who may have crossed the border illegally, to âhelpâ the border patrols. On one such night, Jackson joins his dad and big brother, even though they try to keep him out of this sort of thing so he can get out of Dodge and become a sports hero â and what do you know, the dumb lug ends up shooting and killing a boy (Alessio Valentini) just a little younger than himself. In the back no less.
But Jackson knows the Greer cattle ranch’s financial needs are more immediate. Situated on “the wrong side of the fence” of the US-Mexico border (a trip to the hardware store requires a passport), their property is an easy target for cattle rustlers, and a popular illegal immigration crossing point. One man who has helped many into America is Gustavo Almeida (Jorge A. Jimenez) and, tonight, he’s finally bringing his own two boys north. However, with the Greers, including patriarch Bill (Frank Grillo) on high alert after recent stock losses, their chance encounter ends in tragedy. Lucas is stabbed by one of Gustavo’s sons, while Jackson shoots the other dead.
No Man s Land Review: A Well-Meaning But Flawed Border Western
No Man s Land Review: A Well-Meaning But Flawed Border Western
A Texas border rancher s son (Jake Allyn) accidentally kills an immigrant boy and flees into Mexico in No Man s Land, also starring Frank Grillo.
No Man s Land is a well-meaning, but inherently flawed western drama. A Texas border rancher s son flees into Mexico after accidentally killing an immigrant boy. The film attempts to humanize the thorny issue of illegal immigration from multiple points of view. Its goals are admirable, but the narrative succumbs to contrivances and simplistic exposition. The reversal of fortune storyline becomes clichéd through unrealistic plot developments. That said,
This image released by IFC Films shows, from second left, George Lopez, Frank Grillo, Andie McDowell and Jake Allyn in a scene from No Man s Land. (IFC FIlms via AP)
Border tensions are boiled down to two families in No Man’s Land, an uneven independent thriller with some redeeming qualities. Its heart, and homages to classic Westerns, are in the right place even if the work as a whole is neither as impactful nor epic as the filmmakers were striving for.
The film sets up two families on either side of the border. The Greers are American ranchers whose property exists in no man’s land, north of the Rio Grande but south of the fences. The Mexican family they don’t get a last name are just hoping to start a new life in America. But they have misfortune to cross through the Greers’ on a night that they’ve decided to patrol their lands. They’ve been frustrated that their cattle keep getting out when their fences are cut.
Border tensions are boiled down to two families in “ No Man’s Land,” an uneven independent thriller with some redeeming qualities. Its heart, and homages to