No expense seems to have been spared to film around the world in exotic - if faux - locations (Namibia for Ethiopia, Thailand for Cambodia, Canada - less exotically - for the Caucasas and - totally implausibly - for the UK) which were then brilliantly enhanced by computer technology. The director claims that he aspired to making a film like 'Doctor Zhivago' - a love story set against a wider panorama of spectacular world events. This film fails miserably on both counts.
The supposed attraction between the two individually attractive stars totally fails to gel. Enough said about the love story.
As a portrayal of humanitarian work, the film was a horrible embarrassment to the agencies directly named or implied. It is cringingly inaccurate about their work and their modus operandi. Aside from the degree of anger and frustration exhibited by the hero, which I fantasised was directed at the role which he was being asked to play, I recognised very little in common with real humanitarian field work(ers). To the lay viewer it would seriously distort their perception of how the UN and NGOs behave, although the situations in which the charactors find themselves are all too accurate. I resorted to counting the number of ways in which Angelina Jolie's character contravened UN staff rules and codes of conduct, and imagining what could happen to her by way of internal or criminal proceedings: on balance she was lucky to end up as she did in the film. Such as shame given the actor's real life role as a UN Ambassador. I hope this is never shown in areas where humanitarian emergencies actually occur, because if the local people believe that this is how humanitarian workers really behave, we shall all be at serious risk.
This is probably the only film about humanitarian work that most people will see in their lives and I could weep at the opportunity lost to show something meaningful, true to life and entertaining.

BEYOND BORDERS is the perfect example of a film made to satisfy someone's agenda of political correctness, and the entertainment factor is a thin veneer slopped-on to sell tickets.

The film opens in London at a gala charity benefit to honor the founder of an international aid organization. During all the back slapping and ego massaging, the event is crashed by Dr. Nick Callahan (Clive Owen), the physician-director of a camp for starving refugees in Ethiopia, with a young survivor in tow. Nick angrily berates the guest of honor for not providing more funds to keep his camp going, and the attendees, enjoying their caviar and champers, for hypocrisy in general. After being hustled from the hall by security goons and sent back to Africa, socialite Sarah Jordan (Angelina Jolie), experiences a crisis of conscience, arranges for a shipment of food for Nick's cause, and personally accompanies the goodies to the desert. After an initial period of tension between Jordan and Callahan, the two naturally - because this is a Hollywood script - fall in love before Sarah must return to England and a failing marriage. Five years later, now a member of a UN commission for refugees, Sarah contrives another visit to one of Nick's lost causes, this time in Cambodia. And yet again another half-decade later, Jordan travels to war-torn Chechnya, where Nick has been kidnapped by one side or the other. And you can bet your last sack of donated rice that Sarah is fashionably attired for each expedition!

About mid point in BEYOND BORDERS in Cambodia, one of the minor characters, who had lost a leg to a land mine, explains to Sarah how the arming "click" one hears when stepping on the booby trap is the first indication that life is carefree no longer. That scenario, of course, will surface again before the film's conclusion. That "click" was the only one. Neither the Jordan or Callahan characters, either alone or paired, clicked for me. The romance between the two seemed an artificial construct by scriptwriters desperate to engage the audience in their underlying three-part message concerning the plight of refugees worldwide, a desperation culminating in one of the more contrived endings to any film that I've seen recently.

Of the two main roles, Callahan's was perhaps the most obnoxious. Here we have a high-powered aid worker, presumably needing advanced schmoozing skills to coax money out of donors, not to mention the cool head to negotiate the treacherous shoals of dictatorships and warring factions, comporting himself like a loud-mouthed soccer hooligan.

If I'm to be lectured on the obligation of Western society to care for its less fortunate brothers in the armpits of the world, please don't dress it up as entertainment and expect me to pay for it. This film rightfully belongs in the budget-buy bin at the local discount store.

When there have been dozens of movies made about the Holocaust you can get to the point where you can tell the story of a romance set against such horrors as Robert Benigni did in "La Vita ?? bella. But when you are first showing a world of horror like that in the movies you cannot try and tell a romance against such a backdrop. More to the point, you should not try, and that is the fatal flaw with "Beyond Borders," which will constitute many viewers introductions to the major disasters and wars around the world that international disaster relief works have tried to deal with in the last two decades.

Granted, it is the stars of the film and not the subject matter that will get people to watch the movie. Originally "Beyond Borders" was going to be directed by Oliver Stone and star Kevin Costner and Catherine Zeta-Jones. What they ended up with is director Martin Campbell ("Vertical Limit"), Clive Owen ("Gosford Park") and Angelina Jolie ("Tomb Raider"). When this film was made that would be considered pretty much a drop down across the board (Owen had yet to make "Arthur"), but the fault is not to be found in either the director or the actors. Certainly Jolie is at home here, because even those wearing their Team Aniston t-shirts have to admit that as a good will ambassador for the UNHCR the actress has walked the walk. She was the first recipient of the Citizen of the World Award from the UN's Correspondents' Association for her work, made an honorary citizen of Cambodia for her humanitarian work there, and the tabloids covered her adoption of a newborn baby girl from Ethiopia who was left orphaned by AIDS. No, the problem is with the decision in the script by first time scripter Caspian Tredwell-Owen to go with a romance between the two.

The story is told in three major acts, each representing a major disaster in a different time and place. The first is the Ethiopia famine in 1984, the second is set in the Cambodia of the Khmer Rouge in 1989, and the final is the Chechnya of 1995. These major sequences, shot on location, are sandwiched between scenes in London of the family life that Sarah Jordan (Jolie) leaves behind when she goes off to help Nick Callahan (Owen) to try and save the sick and dying. The film starts off with what we take to be the "present," as Sarah plays Schumann's "Traumerei" on the piano. Clearly this is going to be a sad tale. When then go back to a fund raising party in London in 1984 that Sarah was attending with her husband, Henry Bauford (Linus Roache), and journalist sister, Charlotte Jordan (Teri Polo). The evening's festitivites are interrupted when Callahan storms in with a young Ethiopian boy demanding to know why his funding has been cut off.

I thought the first third of "Beyond Borders" was pretty memorable. Callahan dresses down the crowd in a profane but pointed manner, and when there is a pathetic rejoinder to his barbs he turns it around to really shame them. Sarah is profoundly affected by what happens, both there and afterwards, and decides to drop everything in her life and use all of the money she can get her hands on to fund a relief convoy to Callahan's camp in Ethiopia. There she is given a rude introduction to the horrors of the famine and her efforts are rudely dismissed by Callahan. But Sarah has spunk, or at least a heart in the right place, and she is able to help, which, after all, is what you would think this would all be about in the end. But I should have known when in middle of a relief camp in the middle of the Ethiopian desert Sarah finds a piano to play, that this 2003 film was going to go in the wrong direction.

Here is where I think the movie makes a mistake, because when the supplies run out, Sarah goes home. She and Callahan have established the beginning of a relationship, not just because they have been butting heads but because of a pointed conversation where she demands to know why he never uses her name (and he has a good reason). The idea is that their two paths will cross at the other times and in the other places and their romance will progress. It is just that I find the idea of the romance unnecessary at best. What international disaster relief operatives have to do to not just try and get the job done but to survive is fascinating by itself, as the second act in Cambodia amply proves. Besides, I am much more interested in the rest of Callahan's group, such as Elliott Hauser (Noah Emmerich), than the sparks between Sarah and Callahan. By the time we get to the final act in Checnya, the film is reduced to those two and the relief effort is barely in the background.

The other problem with the last act is that it is telegraphed. When a movie stops so a driver can explain his artifical leg and the climax takes place in Checnya, you have to see the ending coming (especially with the red herring of the opening piano piece). Overall I give the Ethiopia part a 5, the Cambodia part a 4, and the interludes and the Checnya part a 3. That averages out to a 4, but "Beyond Borders" deserves that simply because although the romance takes over the movie in the end, the human misery depicted is not easy to forget and that is worth something. Plus, I appreciate the idea that when people are starving to death there is a point where it does not matter than there are people with guns trying to tell you want to do.

I loved the poignancy of this film. It is beautiful, shocking, informative and very sad (be warned!). If you liked The English Patient or Dr Zhivago, you'll surely like this. The romance between the two lead characters is somewhat predictable and Angelina Jolie's perfect looks in all scenes a little disbelievable, but that's Hollywood for you. Those minor points aside, this is a must-watch film to open your eyes and tug on your heart-strings. Once seen, you'll find it hard to shake out of your head.

Sarah has just married and is feeling on top of the world. Her husband is from a rich family whose charitable foundation has cut off money to a project in Ethopia. When Sarah learns of this she uses her own savings to travel to there and get aid to the camp concerned. Nick, the cynical doctor who runs the camp, resents Sarah's presence at first.

The film spans 20 years or so (1984 to 2003) and is split between London and a few places we've seen on the news in recent years. It is lots of things: a romance similar in the tradition of Romancing the Stone (but without the humour), a drama about a woman in a loveless marriage and an examination around the issues of refugees and aid in foreign countries (including the offer made by the mysterious Steiger).

In a way, the film is an appeal for people to remember those in troubled parts of world but is cynical rather than preachy. Sarah is the young idealistic one and Nick is the cynic to get the job done.

The film is slow in places but most of the time the plot keeps moving. I am glad I saw it on DVD as, in some parts, the speech is indistinct and I had to switch on subtitles to catch what was being said.

If you like films like Doctor Zhiavago(sp?) and The Way We Were then you'll probably like this.