Product Description

WHILE ATTENDING A FUNDRAISING GALA, SARAH, A NAIVE, MARRIED AMERICAN SOCIALITE LIVING IN ENGLAND, WITNESSES A FIERY PLEA DELIVERED BY DR NICK CALLAHAN. HIS PLEA MADE ON BEHALF OG IMPOVERISHED AFRICAN CHILDREN UNDER HIS CARE, TURNS HER LIFE UPSIDE DOWN. SHE ABANDONS HER LIFE TO WORK ALONGSIDE HIM.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16459 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2004-03-23
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 126 minutes

Amazon.com
Romantic adventure, marital crisis, and the tragedy of global hunger are combined with mixed but respectable results in Beyond Borders, starring Angelina Jolie in a role that reflects her off-screen efforts as a United Nations goodwill ambassador. Jolie plays a naive American socialite, unhappily married and living in London, whose life is revolutionized when a passionate doctor (Clive Owen, replacing original costar Kevin Costner) draws her into the cause of humanitarian aid in the world's most dangerous political hot-spots including Ethiopia, Cambodia (where Jolie adopted her first child), and Chechnya in the 1980s and '90s. Directed by Martin (Goldeneye) Campbell, who replaced Oliver Stone during troubled pre-production, this well-meaning film suffers from schizophrenic priorities: Is it a globetrotting love story? An impassioned political exposé? Powerful scenes and fine performances can't entirely offset the film's identity crisis, and the ending strives for a quality of martyrdom that it doesn't really earn. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
High-minded romantic drama set against "strife-torn" (there is no other phrase) backgrounds. The sensationally charismatic Clive Owen is Nick Callahan, a fiery London doctor who devotes himself to the mangled poor in Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya. Angelina Jolie, with a witchy drape of black hair surrounding her face, is Sarah Jordan, a married American who keeps leaving her husband (Linus Roache, in a pathetic role) and traipsing after the doctor, showing up with supplies and keen moral intuitions. They have stormy arguments that are, one supposes, a kind of relief workers' foreplay, and finally get passionate in various uncomfortable climes. The movie is not worthless-some of the backgrounds are vivid and scary-but it can't break free of its old-Hollywood silliness. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Good Movie, Weak Focus
BEYOND BORDERS doesn't seem to know where it is going as a movie: an international love affair, a poster film for the courage of the human soul, a documentary, a promotional film for Angelina Jolie's laudable contributions to global charity, a study of the mismanagement of fundraising and fund disbursement for the victims of famine, starvation and war around the globe, etc etc. If you can get past the need to hone in on a single concept then there is plenty to like about this movie. For once Jolie is able to play a woman obsessed with aiding the unfortunate instead of towering above all others as a fictive comic book character. And there are truly fine performances by Clive Owen (wholly commited to his role as a physician for the masses), Linus Roache, Teri Polo, and Noah Emmerich and of course minor roles played with aplomb by actors from the various locales needing aid - Ethiopia, Cambodia, Chechnya etc. This film has the appearance of a Blockbuster in style and execution, but its real importance is in its depiction of the suffering that covers the globe. In a very touching passage physician Clive Owen addresses the quiet courage of the people in extremis and at that point the message of the movie is driven home with great impact. Recommended.

Lady Croft does it again
Angelina Jolie in this movie reminded me of Barbra Streisand's role in "The Way We Were." She's desperately fighting for a cause she believes in and falls in love at the same time. The images in this movie are frightening and really calls attention to the help these poor people need. Roger Ebert said in his review that the reason Angelina Jolie's character is even involved is because of her crush on the handsome doctor. I disagree. He opens her eyes to the problem but the whole reason why she goes to Africa is to help. Not to get a date. Angelina's performance is wonderful. You really believe she is a woman who wants to live her life to help others. Perhaps that is because she actually is that way in real life. She is a woman to truly be admired. However, the one thing I didn't like about this movie is the story leaps forward too much. At one point it goes forward four whole years and you have no idea what happened during that time. It keeps doing this. The scene where a baby is given a grenade is incredible. If only the scenes were tied together and the story played out more smoothly it would have made for the perfect movie.

Expand your mind Beyond Borders
This is a quality film, something that is harder and harder to find these days! "Beyond Borders" tells the story of a privileged American, Sarah, who's married to a wealthy Brit. At a benefit dinner one night, Sarah was so moved by an outspoken relief- worker doctor that she decided to travel to his aid camp in Ethiopia. From there, we see the story of several years of her life unfold. She travels between her comfortable life in London and the gritty world of aid camps in Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya. The visuals in this film were amazing, and the story of life in the aid camps were gritty and certainly not sugarcoated. It was interesting and enlightening to see this world and I'd say the filmmakers did a nice job of educating the audience without being didactic. The entire film was tied together with a love story, which was ordinary, although it provided some action, adventure, and suspense in the film. Angelina Jolie did quite well in this film (aside from her sometimes irritating blank stares and her oversized lips). I wasn't sure I could really take her seriously in such a serious role, but actually she really did quite well and fit the part nicely. Overall, this is a quality film. But be warned... it's not for those who like sugarcoated, feel-good, airheaded pieces of work (in other words, the majority of Americans who will be going to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre instead). I was glad I went and certainly took something out of it. It's one of those few movies that is actually worth seeing in the theatre.