Written and Directed by John Carlos Frey
Although presented as a fictional drama, The Gatekeeper serves as a factual expose about the plight of illegal immigrants who pass through Mexico into the United States. Their journey is an all-too-common tale fuelled by the hope and promise of a better future that the U.S. offers all the poor, huddled masses from around the world. Regrettably, their American dreams quickly turn to nightmares as many travelers end up as indentured servants, suffering severe brutality with limited means of escape.
John Carlos Frey's desire to tell this story is very noble. He wants to right a wrong that has been ignored for far too long, but unfortunately, his high-minded intentions are inversely proportional to his movie-making abilities. In essence The Gatekeeper is a student film with a big budget, a bad student film. The writing is very weak. The plot points make no sense and the characters are one-dimensional caricatures that have no believable motivation for their actions. It makes the movies on the Lifetime channel look like a John Steinbeck novel.
I am uncomfortable with the hatchet job I need to perform to put into context how truly awful this film is so I ask that you stop reading after this paragraph. The Gatekeeper is generously donating a portion of the box office proceeds to the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Rather than waste your time watching the film, you can accomplish more by visiting the website: http://www.iwfr.org/. If you know John Carlos, do not mention anything to him about this review other than I commend the attention he's bringing to the immigration problem.
Mexicans, I'm assuming, are sneaking across the border under the surveillance of off-duty U.S. Border Patrol Agent, Adam Fields, who is played by the multi-hyphenate John Carlos Frey. Adam is also involved with a right wing fringe group that wants to keep America from having only "tortillas and beans for dinner." Some of Adam's "friends" leap out and startle the Mexicans, taunting them to the point where one Mexican whips out a pistol and shoots someone in the arm. Adam then blasts the shooter in the leg, while the other Mexicans scatter. They leave the wounded Mexican behind after giving him a few kicks.
Adam is brought up in front of his superior for missing one round in his gun. A similar incident happened a couple of weeks ago and his only answer for the missing bullet is complete denial. He comes off like an idiot and is put on suspension. Considering this has happened recently and he knows his weapon gets inspected why wouldn't he keep extra shells? Does he want to get caught?
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