Imagine the plight of a father who has to watch a child who is dying because of the need an organ transplant in order to live. That is a fact that Paul Stanton and his wife Diane have to face on a daily basis without the remote possibility of a solution to their daughter getting better. If you are a man like Paul Stanton, a district attorney from New Mexico, you have to act immediately if he wants to save young Chloe's life.
The Stantons see bureaucracy at work first hand. When a young boy is killed in a car accident, his organs are harvested for transplant. They beg to have the boy's lungs for Chloe, but there are other cases awaiting the same thing. They are denied the opportunity only to learn the organ could not be used on the intended patient because of the distance it took to get to that part of the country.
Help comes in the way of a tip from a sympathetic doctor, who at the expense of losing her job, points out to Paul's superior, James Harrison, as having been removed from the waiting list for a donation. Confronting Harrison proves to be right, because it gives Paul the name of a doctor in Mexico responsible for the heart Harrison bought and received.
Next, Paul ventures into Juarez, a Mexican border town notorious for the death capital of the world. Paul has no idea what he is getting into. He is robbed, beaten and threaten with blackmail by unscrupulous individuals because he is getting too close to finding the mafia behind the organ commerce in that country.
When he stumbles into Miguel and his gang, Paul gets lucky, for the boy, in spite of his aggressive nature and attitude, points him to a doctor who belongs to a criminal ring of trafficking the badly needed organs. Chloe, whose condition deteriorates, is taken to Mexico, where this doctor is going to do the ultimate transplant, at the expense of a young boy, a member of Miguel's gang. Paul has no other alternative but to do the right thing.
The film is a thriller told in almost documentary style. The action keeps moving backward and forward, something that is a bit disorienting, but the suspense never stops, enhanced by the musical score James Newton Howard created for the film. Directed with style by Baltasar Kormakur, the Icelandic director of "The Sea", "Jar City", and "A Little Trip to Heaven", he did not get a regular commercial run of his film. Instead it was shown in Europe in a different format, which is probably the version that we watched on an international cable channel recently because the original running time of 100 minutes were reduced to a mere 83. Perhaps that is the reason we felt disoriented by the arrangement of the material. The film was based on a story by Christian Escario and the screenplay was written by Walter Doty and John Caflin.
Dermot Mulroney makes a virile Paul Stanton. The love of his daughter makes him go against powerful enemy, a criminal organized crime group that include a so called prestigious medical charity organization. Diane Kruger is relegated to an after thought as Paul's wife. Sam Shephard plays Jim Harrison. Jordi Molla is Aguilar, the corrupt police chief. Vincent Perez appears as Dr. Martinez. A terrific Kristian Ferrer has some good moments as Miguel, the young gang leader.
The Stantons see bureaucracy at work first hand. When a young boy is killed in a car accident, his organs are harvested for transplant. They beg to have the boy's lungs for Chloe, but there are other cases awaiting the same thing. They are denied the opportunity only to learn the organ could not be used on the intended patient because of the distance it took to get to that part of the country.
Help comes in the way of a tip from a sympathetic doctor, who at the expense of losing her job, points out to Paul's superior, James Harrison, as having been removed from the waiting list for a donation. Confronting Harrison proves to be right, because it gives Paul the name of a doctor in Mexico responsible for the heart Harrison bought and received.
Next, Paul ventures into Juarez, a Mexican border town notorious for the death capital of the world. Paul has no idea what he is getting into. He is robbed, beaten and threaten with blackmail by unscrupulous individuals because he is getting too close to finding the mafia behind the organ commerce in that country.
When he stumbles into Miguel and his gang, Paul gets lucky, for the boy, in spite of his aggressive nature and attitude, points him to a doctor who belongs to a criminal ring of trafficking the badly needed organs. Chloe, whose condition deteriorates, is taken to Mexico, where this doctor is going to do the ultimate transplant, at the expense of a young boy, a member of Miguel's gang. Paul has no other alternative but to do the right thing.
The film is a thriller told in almost documentary style. The action keeps moving backward and forward, something that is a bit disorienting, but the suspense never stops, enhanced by the musical score James Newton Howard created for the film. Directed with style by Baltasar Kormakur, the Icelandic director of "The Sea", "Jar City", and "A Little Trip to Heaven", he did not get a regular commercial run of his film. Instead it was shown in Europe in a different format, which is probably the version that we watched on an international cable channel recently because the original running time of 100 minutes were reduced to a mere 83. Perhaps that is the reason we felt disoriented by the arrangement of the material. The film was based on a story by Christian Escario and the screenplay was written by Walter Doty and John Caflin.
Dermot Mulroney makes a virile Paul Stanton. The love of his daughter makes him go against powerful enemy, a criminal organized crime group that include a so called prestigious medical charity organization. Diane Kruger is relegated to an after thought as Paul's wife. Sam Shephard plays Jim Harrison. Jordi Molla is Aguilar, the corrupt police chief. Vincent Perez appears as Dr. Martinez. A terrific Kristian Ferrer has some good moments as Miguel, the young gang leader.