No Limite da Proteção

I love Samara Weaving, and I'm happy to see Alba Baptista gaining space in an international production, but not even that saved Borderline from being a frustrating experience. For 90 minutes, all I could think was: "what the hell is this?"

The film tries to be an eccentric thriller with touches of dark humor, but it completely fails to balance the genres. There's no tension, no coherence, not even a solid script. It's a mess of scenes crashing into each other, as if the story is always on the verge of making sense but then refuses to follow a logical path.

The biggest problem is this lack of focus. Borderline seems to want to be everything at once but never commits to anything. Some moments suggest an intense thriller, while others try to lean into absurd comedy, but nothing really works. The humor falls flat because it lacks timing and impact, and the suspense never actually builds up, making it hard to feel engaged in the story. When it finally seems to find its direction, it quickly loses itself again, as if it's afraid of taking itself too seriously.

That said, I can't deny that Samara Weaving and Ray Nicholson carry the film on their backs. She continues to showcase impressive versatility in her roles, and he delivers a fantastic performance that makes me believe he'll become a major force in the industry in the coming years.

Another positive is the soundtrack, which, while not enough to save the film, adds a few moments of atmosphere. But overall, Borderline is an experience that won't appeal to everyone. It had all the ingredients to be a fun and unpredictable thriller, but instead, it's an exercise in patience, kind of stupid and never quite sure of what it wants to be.

Jimmy Warden's directorial debut, Borderline, attempts to fuse a home-invasion thriller with dark comedy, but the result is a tonal mess that never quite finds its footing. The film, set in the 1990s, follows a pop star (Samara Weaving) whose mansion is invaded by a delusional, sociopathic fan (Ray Nicholson). While the premise has potential, the script oscillates wildly between genuinely tense moments and jarringly misplaced attempts at humor, often undercutting the very suspense it tries to build. Nicholson delivers a committed performance, channeling a certain unsettling charisma, but the character is too cartoonish to be truly menacing. Samara Weaving is, as always, a magnetic presence, but she is often left to react to the film's chaotic and nonsensical events. Eric Dane is largely wasted in a supporting role. The film's biggest flaw is its inability to decide what it wants to be, resulting in a confusing and ultimately unmemorable experience.

Is it worth watching? No, it's a frustratingly inconsistent film that fails to live up to the promise of its cast and premise.

Borderline certainly has its moments, especially in the first and second acts, with events unfolding at a rapid pace and characters getting established. I could easily buy Samara Weaving as a 90s pop star (who needed to sing a lot more in the film), Ray Nicholson as a romantic stalker-sociopath (man, this guy's got the presence and the "killer" smile!), and Eric Dane as a bodyguard (somehow, the protagonist?). Alba Baptista also gets a notably wacky role. The performances are pretty good, the lighting choices are great, and the colour palette is interesting. And oh yes, I really enjoyed the soundtrack.

What doesn't hit a home-run, for me, is basically the watered-down third act (..even when there are enough stabbings and some darkly funny moments). The film desperately needed more of Ray Nicholson than the rest, but the man simply chews up the scenery whenever he's present. The showdown between Samara Weaving and Alba Baptista was enjoyable. It's just that the film can't entirely stick the landing in terms of its tonality, thereby not ending up as memorable given the potential we see early on. Also, they didn't give the romance angle (between Sofia & Rhodes) any real build-up, and it ends up looking weak as hell.

What a disappointment.

Good over-acting by Ryan Nicholson, Samara Weaving was better in 'Ready or Not' or 'Azrael'. Here, she has not that much to do.

The movie has some heavy issues concerning the script and the storytelling: The script starts with a lie and Ryan Nicholson as the first person narrator. The lie tricks the viewer and the first person narrative is never again important for the movie. Emotions are shown through the overuse of playing songs, meaning, the narrative is not confident in its script and storytelling. It has to use this trick in filmmaking showing that the direction is not good. So it's more of style over substance thing for the first time director.

The script takes decissions for a black comedy but the ideas don't really take off.

And: Borderline has nothing to do with hallucinations, so the title of the movie makes no sense.

At the end this movie is like an overlong music video.

Ryan Nicholson is rememberable, the movie unfortunately forgettable after watching.

The trailer was promissing a hilarious, dark comedy about stalking. The movie instead is not funny, not hilarious, has serious issues in storytelling, the characters and the script, but it has some dark, black humour.

Is this the best movie I've ever seen? Obviously not but it's fun. And at least it's not another remake! I don't get why some people are super low balling the rating for this. It's a solid 5/6, not a 2, or the 8s I've seen, but hopefully that counteracts the 2s. It's a fun dark comedy. Definitely silly at times but go with it and allow it to be silly. I thought the cast was good. Though it seems Samara is getting a bit type casted in these roles. Ray Nicholson looks just like his father but hes pretty good at playing crazy. This movie made me laugh and it was a good choice for a rainy weekend afternoon. Not everything has to be a masterpiece, this is original and paced well.