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| Beyond
Borders
Directed By: Martin
Campbell Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
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| Set against the backdrop of the world's most dangerous hot spots, this thrilling romantic adventure stars Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie as Sarah Jordan, a sheltered American socialite living in London. When she meets Nick Callahan (Clive Owen) a renegade doctor, his commitment to humanitarian efforts in war-torn nations moves her deeply. Driven by her passion for Nick and his life's work, Sarah risks everything to embark on a perilous journey that leads to the volatile far corners of the earth. [TRAILER] If this review accomplishes nothing else, I hope it imparts one, simple message: Sympathetic images, on their own, do not make a great film. A sick child, dying parent, crying woman, tearful goodbye – these are all images that have been programmed into our subconscious. It takes no talent to use these images to emotional ends; I can film a child dying and make you tear up. The difference between a trite film and a great one is whether these images are lent the respect and credibility necessary to become something honest. “Beyond Borders” is an example of the trite variety – a film which pretends to be about one thing only to spend all its time and attention on another, and a story which injects gut-wrenching ideas and imagery to accommodate its lack of emotional depth. Can’t write a touching romance? Then throw in some dying Africans, this film seems to say, and moviegoers won’t know the difference. If you still insist on seeing this movie, I hope you to see through its transparent façade. “Beyond Borders’” title reflects its political outlook. Nick (Clive Owen) is a relief worker, moving from continent to continent in his quest to save those who have been written off by the world. He is not concerned about policies or governments or politics. He knows people need medicine and food and will do absolutely anything to get it. Sarah (Angelina Jolie) is an elite member of London society, attending a gala fundraiser when Nick storms in with a starving child. He accuses this relief organization of abandoning their promise to deliver aid to Africa, and Sarah is so moved that she cashes in her savings, flies to Ethiopia and drives the supplies to Nick personally. Almost immediately, “Beyond Borders” starts manipulating the audience. As Sarah drives across the desert in a white sundress, she spots a starving child and demands the truck be stopped. She runs out to the exacerbated young one, cradling it in her arms, as the camera tightens and the music swells. Something is shameful here. This moment is not about the child or this environment, as it pretends to be, but about Jolie, in all her radiant glory, saving the day. Try this on for size: Sarah falls madly in love with Nick. Over a bleeding woman on an operating table, in between discussions of dying or dead refugees, and even as mercenaries threaten to assassinate a refugee baby, glances and exchanges between the two seem to dwarf their surroundings. It is not only distracting, but distasteful as one bleak scenario after another culminates in romantic glances between these two ravishing multi-millionaires. I do not have a problem with the depressing story, romance, politics or imagery. I have a problem with how they are fused together in this instance. Other movies about bleak topics, such as “Requiem For A Dream” or “Schindler’s List,” balance their characters with their surroundings, and require their heroes to act human and realistic when thrown into shocking situations. “Beyond Borders” could have easily been titled “Beyond Caring.” While the subjects of mass starvation and disease are timelier than ever, and while Nick launches into numerous, angry tirades about the suffering that surrounds him, this film is really only about two beautiful movie stars getting the chance to hook up. Sarah never sweats, never messes her hair, never looks dirty, never appears in wrinkled clothing or without makeup, never gets to know a refugee, never asks for a refugee’s name and never stays at the relief camps for more than a few days. Visiting these impoverished areas is a feel-good vacation for her, surrounded by amazing sights and the cute guy she has a crush on. If we were talking about a nurse and a doctor at a hospital, it would be a different story. The romance could exist within their worlds, and they could honestly see the misery as just another part of their jobs. But employing starving children and dying women to draw viewers in, only to reduce them to props in highlighting the sympathies and passions of two lovers, is deplorable. To make a bad romance is one thing. Valuing the lives of two rich white people over scores of helpless, hopeless souls forgotten by the world is quite another.   Check out Reviews, Commentary, and More at Zertinet.com |
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