Review of Beyond Borders (2003) by Jim M — 16 Jul 2011

Londen 1984. Socialite Sara Jordan (Angelina Jolie) finds her life changed when aid worker Dr. Nick Callahan (Clive Owen) bursts into a charity ball to demand to know why his funding has been pulled. This night will compell Sara to join Nick in famine stricken Ethiopia and a lifetime of aid work with the UN, until she meets Nick again in Cambodia in 1989, where she learns Nicks secret. Nick has found an alternate source of funding in the mysterious Jan Steiger (Yorick Van Wageningen) who requires Nick to run guns as well as deliver aid. Nicks dealings well catch up to him in 1995 in Chechnya compelling Sara to leaver her family and try to rescue Nick.

Meh. Film goes on for about 30 minutes longer then is healthy. Jolie does well, though she's basically playing an idealized less famous version of herself. Owen spends half the movie telling everybody off (one would think his job would require slightly more tact to keep from getting shot). Van Wageningen is shady, I think we're suppossed to see him as the nominal villian of the piece but honestly I can see how anyone working around Nick would be a might prickish after 5 years. Teri Polo and Linus Roache (as Jolie's sister and husband) do well but for 90% of this there characters are superfoliuos. Noah Emmerich as Nicks fellow aid worker is however great to watch. There in lays the problem. Ethiopia, Cambodia and Chechnya are interesting, whenever the film returns to London I lost all interest. When the film was about the struggles and the compromises of the aid workers I was interested, whenever it was about Jolie and Owen hooking up I was not. Actually this film might be a good metaphor for International Aid, lotta good intentions few concrete results. Won't hate yourself for watching but you can do without.

Random thought. Why is Jolie needed in Ethiopia? Like I know her hearts in the right place but no one once asks her what practical skills a London Socialite can bring to a damn refugee camp. Seems like she'd just get in the way...