"The truth is, I've loved you since we first met, Lar--Angelina, Angelina. Sorry, bad habit." Beyond Borders (R, 127 min.) Wide release Radio (PG, 109 min.) Wide release

Thursday, October 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: Lips without borders

Angelina's face pillows almost eclipse Beyond Borders' moral outrage

By Anthony Allison

Not even Angelina Jolie's lips can totally ruin Beyond Borders.

Like some ghastly, Halloween monster, the Tomb Raider star's puffy face pillows occupy vast acres of movie screen, dwarfing entire swaths of Namibian desert, lush Thai countryside and frigid Canadian wilderness.

But not even these grotesque red excrescences can eclipse the dark, despairing tone of this ambitious romantic epic about an American socialite who falls for an English relief worker. Nor can they upstage Clive Owen's blisteringly sexy performance as Nick Callahan, a crusading cross between James Bond and Doctor Zhivago who, seething with moral indignation, brings humanitarian aid to the most godforsaken, war-torn corners of the globe.

From his dramatic entrance when Dr. Nick crashes a posh London charity ball to the big Oscar moment when he tearfully explains why he cannot afford to get too close to his patients ("If every one I lose has a name..." he begins, not needing to complete the pregnant thought), the Croupier actor totally owns the film. It would be a truly star-making turn--if only a movie this depressing could be a hit.

Sadly that's unlikely. GoldenEye director Martin Campbell brilliantly handles the big showdown involving Khmer Rouge guerrillas and the aid workers (including Noah Emmerich, the perfect, gentle foil to Owen's irascibility). But the 007 locations and Lara Croft heroics sit uneasily alongside the film's socially significant didacticism. From Ethiopia in 1984, through Cambodia in '89 to 1995 Chechnya, Caspian Tredwell-Owen's angry, intelligent script covers a lot of troubled ground and dares to raise big, troubling issues that feel out of place in a major motion picture.

We rich Westerners don't want our consciences pricked by such graphic reminders of Third World suffering. And obese moviegoers don't enjoy scenes (carefully sanitized and tastefully staged) featuring emaciated Ethiopian famine victims. Hell, it's almost enough to put you right off your super-sized bucket of butter-covered popcorn.

Cinema for simpletons

Radio tells the true story of the enduring friendship between South Carolina high school football coach Harold Jones and the mentally challenged man he unofficially "hired" as head cheerleader and assistant coach, James Robert Kennedy, nicknamed "Radio" for his penchant for collecting old transistor radios.

But Mike Tollin's well-meaning film not only fails to score any feelgood field goals. It veers hopelessly into the offensiveness outfield.

Yup, folks, prepare to unleash the politically incorrect gags about Forrest gimp, special Ed Harris and "Show me the moron!" Because Cuba Gooding, Jr. has failed to notice that his supporting actor Oscar for Jerry Maguire was as good as it gets. Since then his career has gone totally to the (snow) dogs.

By the time concerned principal Alfre Woodard corners stubborn coach Harris, she isn't alone in wondering whether Radio Kennedy is "being used as nothing more than a glorified mascot." It's a disquieting thought that Tollin never satisfactorily resolves, and he only compounds the exploitative felony by including some closing shots of the real Kennedy and Jones.

When adapting Gary Smith's Sports Illustrated article "Someone to Lean On," screenwriter Mike Rich apparently didn't find any dramatic conflict. So he created a racist star jock (Riley Smith) and his bigoted banker dad (Chris Mulkey) plus some minor family issues--Harris' wife Debra Winger stays mainly on the sidelines while daughter Sarah Drew moans that dad's neglecting her. Then there are the laughable barbershop scenes, where the (stiff, stilted) menfolk of Anderson, S.C., debrief coach Harris after every game. Meanwhile, James Horner's overblown score fruitlessly tries increasing the emotional tension.

You don't change attitudes about the mentally challenged or victims of racism by condescending to them or your audience. Radio isn't a heartwarming paean to the power of sports to unite people. It's an insult to all concerned.