This, to me, is a above-average film that was overlooked and slagged by many critics at its theatrical release back in 2003. Maybe it was because Angelina Jolie was considered weird--well, she did marry a guy named Billy Bob and carry a vial of his blood in some jewelery around her neck--and, of course, is rather overexposed.
But if you set that aside and look at it as a film that tells a sweeping and emotional story, I think you'll find this a moving, well-acted film with a strong emotional core.
The film has a sweep to it that is about as close to the classics of Sir David Lean that this generation of major films are about to get. (Another Brit with a wide lens and a taste for foreign locales, Martin Campbell, who did the recent revamped James Bond entry, "Casino Royale", is the director here. ) But, unlike the historical epics favored by Lean, this subject is quite timely--the human disaster of millions of refugees fleeing famine and war. The action in the story takes place from 1984 to the the mid nineties in Ethiopia, Cambodia, and, finally, the horrors of war in the "breakaway republic" of Chechnya. Jolie is a UN bureaucrat based in London who is moved by the desperation and audacity of a rough-edged doctor (Clive Owen) as he tries to keep aid flowing to his drought-stricken and underfunded refugee station in Africa. She goes out as a UN representative with aid to the region and its quickly clear that some moral compromises have to be made and amoral government officials are part of the problem.
The film reminds the viewer that people in the developed world neglect our fellow men and women in dire straits all too often--especially when the media concentrates on more flashy and mundane matters, or when "compassion fatigue" sets in. Owen's character is far from a perfect guy--he is willing to do almost anything to help people, including making deals with literal devils like the Khmer Rouge, in order to save lives. It's these flaws in his character that keep him from being the priggish angel often found in well-meaning movies that are, to use a term coined by director Sydney Pollock, the cinematic equivalent of "eating your spinach."
Beyond Borders , while admittedly an adventure/ romantic film and not a documentary, reminds us in a entertaining and, in its finale, heart-rending way, that "all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." The extras on the DVD version show how much Ms. Jolie was influenced by her experiences on the film, and also how accurate the refugee camps and the situations in the film reflect the realities of trying to keep people alive who are caught in a matrix of hunger exacerbated by the inhumanity of aggressive nation-states and gun-toting warlords and their fanatical followers. Thankk goodness for the other kind of people whose "fanaticism" is to see see parents live long enough to see their children grow up and the children simply get a chance to live and maybe smile once in a while.
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