Opens
October 24
Even assuming the best possible motives by its makers, "Beyond Borders" runs the risk of making human suffering exotic while glamorizing white disaster relief workers in the Third World. By setting a "thrilling romantic adventure," to quote the film's press kit, against the backdrop of humanitarian efforts in war-torn lands, this production unwittingly crosses the line between entertainment and exploitation once too often. The image of an immaculate Angelina Jolie in fresh white linens marching through a filthy Ethiopian refugee camp, clutching a dying black baby, is not going to sit well with many audience members or critics.
Clearly, the filmmakers mean this image to convey a sheltered rich woman's naivete. Yet neither the character nor the film ever seems to lose that naivete: These environments of human greed and horror serve merely to unite our soul-mate heroes -- Jolie's philanthropic socialite and Clive Owen's rugged international disaster relief doctor -- and to dramatize their passion for one another in contrast to the woman's bloodless marriage to a wan London businessman.
Paramount should anticipate no better than average grosses in domestic release.
The film opens at a London benefit ball where a band plays the rock song "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which sums up Sarah Jordan's (Jolie) dilemma. Writer Caspian Tredwell-Owen breaks the story down into three distinct acts covering the years 1984 to 1995. In each segment, Sarah is lured to refugee camps from her pampered life in London by handsome Dr. Nick Callahan (Owen), first to Ethiopia, then Cambodia and finally Chechnya. (The film was shot in Montreal and Quebec Provence, Namibia and Thailand.) She always arrives at a moment of extreme crisis, invariably finds a baby to hold, and after initial suspicion and animosity between the overwhelmed doctor and the inappropriately dressed do-gooder, the two acknowledge their mutual love.
Director Martin Campbell certainly knows how to stage scenes of tense action so each segment features solid moments of high drama. Especially good is one in the killing fields of Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge soldiers draw guns on relief workers while letting a frightened baby play with a live hand grenade.
These sequences are rife with gun smuggling, spies, clandestine love affairs and dramatic escapes. But portraying international relief work as an extension of James Bond-like intrigue with noble heroes and outlandish, easy-to-hate villains oversimplifies the geo-political situations in which groups such as Doctors Without Borders struggle. Had the film focused on one humanitarian disaster rather than opt for a travelogue of world hot spots, "Beyond Borders" perhaps might have shed greater light on the causes and cures for such tragedies.
The movie's mixed intentions throw off both stars. Jolie never fully sheds her Lara Croft persona as a woman of action with nary a hair out of place no matter how violent the action. Owen also poses for the camera too much. Meanwhile, chemistry between these two is nearly zilch. Low-key Noah Emmerich as Owen's partner comes closer to the spirit of true relief work while Yorick van Wageningen makes a convincingly unsavory CIA operative. Stuck unhappily in roles that serve as plot conveniences are Teri Polo as Jolie's journalist-sister and Linus Roache as her clueless husband.
Production values are exceedingly good as cinematographer Phil Meheux and designer Wolf Kroeger transport us to wildly different landscapes of horror, although the Namibian and Thai segments are perhaps too scenic to fully convey that horror. However, Montreal makes a poor substitute for London as its streets never read British.
BEYOND BORDERS
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Mandalay Pictures present a Camelot Pictures
Credits: Director: Martin Campbell
Writer: Caspian Tredwell-Owen
Producers: Dan Halsted, Lloyd Phillips
Director of photography: Phil Meheux
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: James Horner
Costume designer: Norma Moriceau
Editor: Nicholas Beauman.
Cast:
Sarah Jordan: Angelina Jolie
Nick Callahan: Clive Owen
Charlotte Jordan: Teri Polo
Henry Bauford: Linus Roache
Elliott Hauser: Noah Emmerich
Steiger: Yorick Van Wageningen
Lawrence Bauford: Timothy West
Mrs. Bauford: Kate Trotter
Running time -- 127 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
October 24
Even assuming the best possible motives by its makers, "Beyond Borders" runs the risk of making human suffering exotic while glamorizing white disaster relief workers in the Third World. By setting a "thrilling romantic adventure," to quote the film's press kit, against the backdrop of humanitarian efforts in war-torn lands, this production unwittingly crosses the line between entertainment and exploitation once too often. The image of an immaculate Angelina Jolie in fresh white linens marching through a filthy Ethiopian refugee camp, clutching a dying black baby, is not going to sit well with many audience members or critics.
Clearly, the filmmakers mean this image to convey a sheltered rich woman's naivete. Yet neither the character nor the film ever seems to lose that naivete: These environments of human greed and horror serve merely to unite our soul-mate heroes -- Jolie's philanthropic socialite and Clive Owen's rugged international disaster relief doctor -- and to dramatize their passion for one another in contrast to the woman's bloodless marriage to a wan London businessman.
Paramount should anticipate no better than average grosses in domestic release.
The film opens at a London benefit ball where a band plays the rock song "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which sums up Sarah Jordan's (Jolie) dilemma. Writer Caspian Tredwell-Owen breaks the story down into three distinct acts covering the years 1984 to 1995. In each segment, Sarah is lured to refugee camps from her pampered life in London by handsome Dr. Nick Callahan (Owen), first to Ethiopia, then Cambodia and finally Chechnya. (The film was shot in Montreal and Quebec Provence, Namibia and Thailand.) She always arrives at a moment of extreme crisis, invariably finds a baby to hold, and after initial suspicion and animosity between the overwhelmed doctor and the inappropriately dressed do-gooder, the two acknowledge their mutual love.
Director Martin Campbell certainly knows how to stage scenes of tense action so each segment features solid moments of high drama. Especially good is one in the killing fields of Cambodia, where Khmer Rouge soldiers draw guns on relief workers while letting a frightened baby play with a live hand grenade.
These sequences are rife with gun smuggling, spies, clandestine love affairs and dramatic escapes. But portraying international relief work as an extension of James Bond-like intrigue with noble heroes and outlandish, easy-to-hate villains oversimplifies the geo-political situations in which groups such as Doctors Without Borders struggle. Had the film focused on one humanitarian disaster rather than opt for a travelogue of world hot spots, "Beyond Borders" perhaps might have shed greater light on the causes and cures for such tragedies.
The movie's mixed intentions throw off both stars. Jolie never fully sheds her Lara Croft persona as a woman of action with nary a hair out of place no matter how violent the action. Owen also poses for the camera too much. Meanwhile, chemistry between these two is nearly zilch. Low-key Noah Emmerich as Owen's partner comes closer to the spirit of true relief work while Yorick van Wageningen makes a convincingly unsavory CIA operative. Stuck unhappily in roles that serve as plot conveniences are Teri Polo as Jolie's journalist-sister and Linus Roache as her clueless husband.
Production values are exceedingly good as cinematographer Phil Meheux and designer Wolf Kroeger transport us to wildly different landscapes of horror, although the Namibian and Thai segments are perhaps too scenic to fully convey that horror. However, Montreal makes a poor substitute for London as its streets never read British.
BEYOND BORDERS
Paramount Pictures
Paramount and Mandalay Pictures present a Camelot Pictures
Credits: Director: Martin Campbell
Writer: Caspian Tredwell-Owen
Producers: Dan Halsted, Lloyd Phillips
Director of photography: Phil Meheux
Production designer: Wolf Kroeger
Music: James Horner
Costume designer: Norma Moriceau
Editor: Nicholas Beauman.
Cast:
Sarah Jordan: Angelina Jolie
Nick Callahan: Clive Owen
Charlotte Jordan: Teri Polo
Henry Bauford: Linus Roache
Elliott Hauser: Noah Emmerich
Steiger: Yorick Van Wageningen
Lawrence Bauford: Timothy West
Mrs. Bauford: Kate Trotter
Running time -- 127 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/27/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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