"Boarding Gate" ** (out of ****)I'm a little late in the game when it comes to the director and star of "Boarding Gate". The director is French filmmaker Olivier Assayas and the star Italian actress Asia Argento.
Apparently the two have a very large cult following which I have been completely unaware of. Assayas was a film critic turned director who has directed a segment in last year's disappointing "Paris je t'aime" and the film many see "Boarding Gate" as the sequel to, "Demonlover". He also made a film with his ex-wife, Maggie Cheung, "Clean" (which I haven't seen yet).
Asia Argento, daughter of famed Italian horror filmmaker Dario Argento is seen by some as a screen vixen. Many people speak of her beauty. I have only seen her in "XXX" the Vin Diesel action film, which I honestly cannot remember her in (she made quite the impression on me huh?) and Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette", where she had a very small role. She can currently be seen in "Mother of Tears" directed by her father. Which had a very limited run in Chicago.
If "Boarding Gate" is any indication of what to expect from Ms. Argento she seems to try and walk that fine line between sexy and sleazy. Just look at this film's poster and the way the film was marketed. I will include another poster to fully illustrate this point. She also seems to be a bad-ass. A modern femme fatale in a sense.
"Boarding Gate" and Assayas took quite a beating when the film premiered, out of competition, at Cannes. Assayas' work seems to be controversial as his works causes much critical debate. One group loves him while the other thinks he makes trash. In fact in an interview with IFC Assayas said "I did not want to be concerned with making something that was in good taste" when asked if "Boarding Gate" should be perceived as sexy or sleaze. The film took nearly a year to find a distributor.
The film follows Sandra (Argento) the former lover of businessman Miles Rennberg (Michael Madsen) who is now in debt looking for a way out after some questionable business moves. Miles was married at the time he was with Sandra and their relationship seems to involve several layers which the viewer has to play a guessing game to figure out. The two seemed to have a S&M relationship but did Miles use Sandra to get information from competing businessmen by having Sandra sleep with them? I have a hunch he did, but neither character comes out and says it. The dialogue in there scenes together plays off as two people continuing a conversation from the day before. Meaning the viewer is somehow in the middle. We don't know what was said before and where the conversation will go. The characters speak in "code".
Sandra wants to end her relationship with Miles as she is now in love (?) with Lester (Carl Ng) another married man, whom she works with, along with his wife Sue (Kelly Lin).
Sandra kills Miles (this is not a spoiler, director Assayas has mentioned this part of the plot in interviews) and seeks the help of Lester to get her out of the country. He agrees to help her by getting her a passport and putting her on a plane to Hong Kong, where the two will meet. But when in Hong Kong things go wrong as now Sandra fears for her life.
Assayas says the film is based on a true incident but the case has not yet went to trial. Even if all of this or half of it was true the biggest problem with "Boarding Gate" is there is very little suspense. Assayas does little to create any true tension. Some scenes work and supply us with some gripping moments and shocks us but much of the picture does not.
Normally when you make a film like this the viewer becomes involved in the hero or anti-hero's situation. We see them slip deeper and deeper into trouble up against a wall. We come to relate to them. The viewer can sense their desperation. Think of the work of David Mamet and films such as "The Spanish Prisoner" or "Heist". Think of Neil Jordan's "The Crying Game" of any film with Linda Florentino, who I think Argento can be compared to, at least in this film. Argento simply doesn't have the acting chops to do it. We ultimately don't care about her. Some blame must be placed on Assayas as well. If the material wasn't in the screenplay, which he wrote, you can't take it out on the stars. But Argento never makes us believe she is in trouble. That she truly is a victim who has been caught in a greater plot.
Some critics liked the film a lot. I was at first surprised to read the New York Times recommend it and then I saw who wrote the article, Manohla Dargis. She writes on the effects this film will have on Argento career "Boarding Gate" did do was reconfirm Ms. Argento as one of contemporary cinema's most fascinating creatures." Really? There must not be many fascinating creatures in contemporary cinema. Variety on the other hand said the film is "a limp, sleazy inanity". I wouldn't go that far but the film seems to fall somewhere in the middle. It is neither entertaining or boring.
According to an interview Assayas did with GreenCine when asked about a theme this film has in connection to other films he has made he said "I see a connection between sex and the relationship created by control and power within the capitalist system." Now I can see how Sandra uses sex as a way to gain power. Sex is never done out of pleasure or love in this film. But "Boarding Gate" as a commentary on our capitalist system? Talk about overachieving! I must have been sleeping during those parts.
If there is any reason to watch "Boarding Gate" it is because of Asia Argento. There is an interesting character lurking beneath what Assayas has created. But I never felt the character was fully fleshed out and developed. I said she seems like she it never over her head, and there are moments when that is true, yet there are times, we wonder how did she get into this situation if she is so smart? She reacts to situations in any way the plot demands her to even if that goes against what has been establish about the character previously.
Olivier Assayas I think knew he had a slim story here so it was decided to place more emphasis on Asia Argento. She prances around half of the movie in her underwear. And I'm not complaining but I think Assayas should have rewritten this film. Take the film into darker places. Go deeper with this story. And rewrite the Sandra character so she is more consistent. Then "Boarding Gate" would be worth departing on.
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