Stop listening to what the other critics say. Don't believe what you heard on the radio or on the news. "Beyond Borders" is a movie that you should go see. It gives you a glimpse inside the lives of relief workers, working in the most horrible of conditions. For once, we get a movie with a great and powerful plot, and all the critics have nothing good to say about it. I am here to tell you otherwise.
Let us start with the plot. Sarah Jordan (Angelina Jolie) starts the movie as an upper class woman who has just married a well-to-do British gentleman. Through an emotional and compelling presentation given by Nick Callahan (Clive Owen), Sarah decides to try to help the good doctor and his patients in a far-off third-world country. Through this experience, Sarah becomes a full-fledged UN worker and devotes her life to the relief work that is being done all over the world.
Then there is the love story, which is obviously between Jolie and Owen. But Jolie is married to another man, and since Owen is a relief doctor and is always in some distant country, their affair is very sporadic. The entire movie spans a little less than 10 years and in that time span they only see each other three or four times; you can tell that this love story really isn't a central part of the movie, although it does play a great role in it. If you want to see a great love story, then you should go and see something else. But I am sure that you can tell that from the trailers anyway.
The absolute most gripping parts of the movie are the long scenes in the different countries. Owen's work takes him all over the world, but only to those places where children are dying of starvation and lack of medication. In "Beyond Borders," there are three countries that are visited, and their individual troubles and wars are depicted incredibly graphically.
In Ethiopia, vultures pray on starving children who are still alive but too weak to move, and the mothers lay meters away and cannot do anything because the vultures are already eating off their children's still-living bodies. Open chest surgery is conducted without any high-tech equipment and without morphine. Children are so thin that they cannot stand by themselves and can never recover because they are too weak to eat. And even if they could eat, there isn't any food. And that's only the first country.
In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, lead by Pol Pot, terrorize the people who are living there by killing thousands. The relief workers have to keep both sides of the civil war happy in order to stay alive themselves, not to mention continue their work. Men are shot at random and women are raped at will. Children are used as mine sweeps and babies are given hand grenades. Medical supplies never arrive on time, and when they do finally arrive, half of the original shipments are missing because the civil war armies had to be satisfied first.
Finally, in Chechnya, snipers prey on pedestrians and foreigners are kidnapped at random. Medical supplies are stolen and blown to pieces, and those supplies that manage to make it through are nowhere close to enough to what is required for the wounded. Not only are these relief workers expected to live through these conditions, they are expected to work.
As you can probably tell, this is not a feel-good movie; I cannot think of a film that is further from that genre. "Beyond Borders" will make you cry within the first ten minutes -- not because you are attached to the characters, but because the sight of the people living in these conditions is too much to bear.
The love story is one that has been seriously overplayed by trailers and media. The fact that the love story does not get to play an incredibly large role is not in the fault of the script or the actors; it is just overshadowed by everything else that is going on. True, this movie rides on the back of the affair between Jolie and Owens, but in the end, the movie could have still survived if their characters where simply good friends.
The movie is about the dedication of relief workers to their work and the battles that they must overcome in order to continue. The love story does bring the movie to life, but do not go to see this movie to see a love story unfold.
After reading the script in 2001, Angelina Jolie joined the UN and gave much of her time and efforts to doing exactly what her character does. Today she acts as the Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Do not be surprised if, after watching "Beyond Borders," you feel the same way she did, and want to fly off to some plague-infested country and help those who are dying. And if you try to look the other way, guilt will overcome you. "Beyond Borders" violently opens eyes that have been stapled shut by happy, feel-good movies.
Director Martin Campbell should be commended for his vision and the way his cameras showed the landscapes of these places. His earlier work, such as "Goldeneye" and "Vertical Limit," also showed this to some extent, but they are nothing compared to "Beyond Borders."
It seems that Campbell likes to use color themes. He painted the Ethiopian deserts a bright and desperate orange, the rainforests of Cambodia an evil and lurking green and Chechnya, a bleak and forbidding gray. With these he evokes the personalities of each country and each individual struggle. The colors burn into your mind and remind you constantly of the lives of the people who are there.
This movie will not escape you. Be prepared to feel guilty for biting into an apple or taking a drink of water. Be prepared to go online right after the movie has ended and looking up the details of all these civil wars, and then going to the UN and wanting to volunteer. The love story is not that impressive, but then again, this is not really a love movie. The landscapes, battle scenes and pure suffering that are brought to life in this movie will wrench your heart and not let go. "Beyond Borders" is a brilliant movie that will linger in your mind for days to come.
4 and a half stars
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