A poor man's version of a David Lean-style romantic epic, Beyond Borders has reportedly been in development for years. Perhaps it needed to stay there a little longer.
Comment
10/24/03
Beyond Borders (2003)
14
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:99
Fresh:14
Rotten:85
Average Rating:4.3/10
Consensus: Beyond Borders is good-intentioned, but the use of human suffering as a backdrop for a romance comes across as sanctimonious and exploitative.
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $4,394,454
Synopsis: Director Martin Campbell (GOLDENEYE) balances a romantic tale, serious political commentary, and beautifully shot scenery from exotic locations in BEYOND BORDERS. Oscar winner Angelina Jolie gives... [More]
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Clive Owen, Teri Polo, Linus Roache
Director: Martin Campbell
Reviews for Beyond Borders
Skip Beyond Borders and write a check to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders.
10/24/03
The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans, etc. Yet the hill of beans, incredibly, is what Beyond Borders is all about.
10/24/03
[A] message-lite stinker.
10/24/03
Beyond Borders should have been called Beyond Boredom.
10/24/03
The screenplay is a spatterfest of self-satisfaction, preaching and sanctimonious weeping, merrily deaf to the tasteless posturing of its characters, who bemoan their love lives amid the appalling horrors of disease-racked refugee camps.
10/24/03
Beyond Borders makes an earnest stab at illustrating the hardships and sacrifices humanitarian workers contend with -- but in the end, all the suffering merely forms an amorphous backdrop for a Harlequin romance.
10/24/03
A disastrously clumsy, heavy-handed movie.
10/24/03
A passionate, if tragic, social-issue film.
10/24/03
The first third of the film is powerful and moving. The second third is dramatic, but the final third is so corny it almost makes one forget what Beyond Borders could and should have achieved.
10/24/03
Despite their blatant use of humanitarianism for marketing purposes, it's obvious the filmmakers' hearts are in the right place, but the sort of consciousness raising the movie tries to do only works if it's enveloped in a compelling story.
10/24/03
It's a big message that tries to appear in movie clothing. But, like a cow trying to wear a Brooks Brothers suit, the bad fit is fairly obvious.
10/24/03
Worth watching despite the miscues.
10/24/03
At its worst, Beyond Borders could be accused of exploiting the very cause it wants to champion; at its best, it only makes us wish someone had abandoned this campaign as a lost cause, and started all over again.
10/24/03
It's so full of cliches and pointless digressions that whatever it's trying to convey gets lost in a hurry.
10/24/03
Despite all its grisly sights, the most disturbing thing about Beyond Borders is the magnitude of its miscalculation. In this movie, the world's a stage for ill-fated romance, and famine and war aren't much more than props.
10/24/03
Beyond Borders invites ruminations about style over substance.
10/24/03
We're both numb and impatient by the time Beyond Borders draws to an end. In a movie that seeks so hard to inspire, that seems a crying shame.
10/24/03
Beyond Borders has good intentions and wants to call attention to the plight of refugees, but what a clueless vulgarization it makes of its worthy motives.
10/24/03
Top CriticBeyond Borders so trivializes the plight of the world's displaced peoples that it becomes actively obnoxious.
10/24/03
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