Bordertown

Language : English / Spanish

Year of release : 2007

Run time : 1h52m

Genre : Thriller / Mystery

Cast : Jennifer Lopez, Antonio Banderas, Martin Sheen

The movie written and directed by Gregory Nava, is inspired by actual events , of the many female murd3rs in Juarez, events accounted in producer Tom Golden's documentaries .

American news reporter for the Chicago Sentinel, Lauren Adrian, is assigned by her editor to investigate the r@pe-murd3rs of young women who work in "maquiladora" factories at the border of Mexico with the USA. She fights him as she doesn't want to do it, as she says, no one cares for Mexico.

Maquiladora worker, Eva, takes the bus home from work, and stops to buy her little sister a doll for her birthday. She is followed by a man, and she runs scared, catching a bus at the last moment. On the bus, she is the last one on, and the driver asks her if she minds if he drives by the gas station to fill the tank. He stops in a place which looks like a dump site, and he jumps her, but she manages to escape him and get off the bus. She is caught by another man who rapes her and strangles her.

She wakes up buried in a shallow grave.

When Lauren arrives in Juarez, the police claims the murders are solved, although they're different patterns, which leads to more k1llers.

She calls Alfonso Diaz, whom she worked with 6 years prior, and whom she is afraid to call, as maybe, they didn't separate in the best terms.

Meeting at the k1llers' dumping site, Diaz tells her that the families of the missing girls are the ones looking through the dumping site, as the police don't care, in fact, they try to cover it up!

Diaz informs her the number of the murdered women is close to 5000, and they are used for sn@ff films, their organs are sold, and every cr1minal who wants to k1ll a woman comes to Juarez for they know nothing will happen to them!

Eva and her mother go to Diaz's newspaper, and as soon as they get there, Diaz and Lauren start having problems with the police, as they try to find the girl, whom they talk about as if she's the perpetrator.

After hiding her from the police, Lauren takes her to her hotel room, but Eva runs in the middle of the night, as she thinks the r@pist found her, and when they get back, the police has the hotel surrounded, wanting to question Lauren!

Lauren asks Teresa Casillas, the founder of an organization which is trying to help these women, to take her in, and the woman offers her shelter.

Eva has nightmares, and she thinks her r@pist,whom she calls the devil, is in the house, trying to get her.

At a "quinceanera", a party for a 15 year old girl, that Teresa is invited to, Lauren and Eva go as her plus ones, and after seeing her favorite singer, Juanes, who gives her an autograph, Eva sees her r@pist, who turns out to be an important man , and this explains the cover-ups.

I personally enjoyed the movie.It was interesting, it has a good plot, which doesn't drag on.

Diaz is a man who is trying to make a difference, to bring the truth to light for some justice, in a world ruled by injustice, and pays with his life for it.

Lauren begins as a character who at first wants nothing to do with Mexico,she wants a career, to be a foreign correspondent in the Iraq war, and then movies to Juarez, taking Diaz's old job as an editor for the "Sol de Juarez" newspaper, having character growth.

I also liked Teresa's house, it was like a piece of paradise in hell.

The actors were good. This was one of Jennifer Lopez's best roles, as she was good in this one.

Singer Juanes makes a cameo appearance singing at the birthday party of one of the rich people's daughter.

The soundtrack was good.

The movie was in the works since 1998, with Jennifer Lopez attached to it! Director Gregory Nava hoped that the movie will pressure the Mexican government to bring the ones responsible to justice. He also said they had problems shooting in Mexico, as the locals who helped the crew were threatened by the police and their thousand dollars equipment was stolen.

The movie grossed 8.3 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 21 million, receiving mixed reviews.

You can watch the full movie here, for free :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB_w19Y_YA0

Rating : Worth a watch !