A tragicomedy about excessive obsession. Review of the movie Borderline

The thriller Fanatic / Borderline is one of those cases where changing the title to something more understandable to the mass audience somewhat harms the essence of the story. After all, the word "borderline" is often used to refer to borderline personality disorder, which is characterized by sharp mood swings and general unstable behavior. At the same time, although the title Fanatic still immediately tells what this story will be about, at the same time it loses depth.

And this film was the directorial debut of Jimmy Worden, whom you may know as the screenwriter of Cocaine Bear. Or as the husband of Australian actress Samara Weaving, who is known not only for her roles in thrillers and horror films, but also for her interesting resemblance to Margot Robbie. A directorial debut is always a high responsibility, and Worden was able to accept it with dignity ( and even take his own wife in the lead role - ed. ). Borderline turned out to be a good thriller, even considering the noticeable problems with tone and style.

Pop singer Sophia (Samara Weaving) lives a luxurious life and seems to have everything a person could dream of. However, "everything" also includes a stalker fan named Paul (Ray Nicholson), who believes that he must marry Sophia. Once he even attacked Sophia's bodyguard Bell (Eric Dane) with a knife and broke into the singer's house. He was caught and put in a mental hospital, but Paul managed to escape. Now he is determined to bring his desire to marry Sophia to the finale and is ready to make any sacrifices for this, including human ones. The guy's perception of reality is extremely distorted, which makes his behavior completely unpredictable.

Very often, directorial debuts suffer from similar problems: an overly drawn-out script with nothing to fill it with, an almost complete lack of visual storytelling techniques, and generally bland direction. Borderline was a pleasant surprise. The film not only looks good, but is also surprisingly stylized. Even the lighting and on-screen texts become additional tools, thanks to which the film crew reveals the story of one obsessive fan.

Ray Nicholson agreed to the role as soon as he read the script because he likes to play ambiguous characters with some kind of mental disability. His Paul in Borderline is a real treasure that you can't even write down in any specific archetype. He is friendly, funny, silly and infinitely creepy at the same time. Be sure to watch the scene during the credits until the end: it may seem insignificant, but it fully reveals Nicholson's acting talents. In just a few seconds, he is able to convey an incredible range of unique emotions. A talent that is not found very often.

The entire film, from the general script to the staging of individual scenes, seems to be trying to adapt to the crazy character of the main antagonist. But this is more to the detriment, because the film fails to create a specific mood. Just when you begin to think that it has become completely scary, an absurd scene and a comedic interlude begin. When you accept the new rules and even start laughing at strange jokes, "Fanatic" / Borderline returns to awkward dialogues and scary moments with attempts to reveal the worldview of a crazy person. It is difficult to focus on the essence of the story with such "jumps".

And to be completely honest, there is almost no "essence" in the film as such. The script does not particularly develop the theme of stalking, the nuances of the lives of popular stars and their influence on ordinary people, psychological illnesses, etc. All these elements become just cinematic images without depth. That is, yes, Borderline communicates with the audience in the language of cinema, visual elements and staging of scenes, but has almost nothing to say to it.

How bad is it? The topic of stalking is extremely relevant for a significant number of people, even if they are not stars, so for them Fanatic will really become an almost extreme experience. Everyone else will get a good movie, just a movie, not a story or a script. These concepts are often not completely distinguished, and in vain, some worthy films receive low ratings solely because the audience and critics looked at them from the wrong angle.

Again, for a directorial debut, Borderline is a wonderfully done piece of work. Perhaps Worden didn't want to put deep thoughts into it, but was just practicing his filmmaking skills and visual storytelling methods. If so, we expect more from him, because he has shown enormous potential. But next time, we won't be able to forgive such a superficial story.