Boarding Gate
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Movie Reviews of Boarding Gate
Movie Review: improves as it goes along
Summary: 3 Stars
"Boarding Gate" is an initially verbose French crime drama that, for the first half at least, threatens to talk itself and us to a standstill. Luckily, at about the midway point, the pacing picks up considerably and it turns into a stylish, gripping thriller.
The film chronicles the stormy relationship between an unscrupulous businessman and the ex-mistress he routinely pimps out to his clients. However, it's only after she's lured into committing murder and forced to go on the lam to Hong Kong that the movie becomes an intriguing, multi-layered look at infidelity and betrayal.
Italian actress Asia Argento, who's a dead-ringer for Uma Thurman, commands the screen with her pouting eroticism and natural charisma, and she gets strong support from Michael Madsen and Carl Ng as the two main men in her life, as well as from Kelly Lin as a romantic rival who reluctantly helps Argento out in the end. The direction by Olivier Assayas - in the second half at least - is crisp, focused and exciting, and the visuals alone are enough to compensate for some of the gaping holes in the storyline.
One caveat, however: while technically a French movie, most of the dialogue is actually in English. However, there are times when the movie unaccountably lapses into un-subtitled French and Chinese, leaving the audience in the dark as to a few, possibly crucial, details in the story, proving yet again that a picture is not necessarily always worth a thousand words.
Movie Review: BOADING GATE
Summary: 3 Stars
I only purchased this movie because Isia Argento looked sexy in it, it is not a bad movie if you are bored you can watch it and waste some time on it.Movie Review: Highbrow Softcore
Summary: 2 Stars
Just so you know, Asia Argento only spends about eight minutes total screen time in black lingerie. If that's your main reason for watching this movie, adjust your expectations accordingly.
"Boarding Gate" is a highbrow version of a straight to video erotic thriller whose main appeal (beyond the aforementioned lingerie) lies in its odd juxtaposition of artsy sheen and pulpy core. The plot is a deliberately unfleshed out contraption involving a love affair gone bad, deadly double crosses, and sinister "corporate" intrigue that will be risible to anyone who has ever had an office job. Even more so than in in most noir, this is just a pretext for an extended exercise in style, or actually two exercises. The first half of the movie is a kinky pas de deux between Argento's Sandra, a prostitute/industrial spy and her former lover Miles (Michael Madsen), a down on his luck financier with whom she remains inexplicably obsessed. (After this movie, Asia Argento's status as an object of desire among pudgy fifty year old guys will be set in stone.) Despite a constant background hum of preposterousness, their meandering confrontations are well done, and the French cinema flourishes seem entirely appropriate window dressing for what is basically a long softcore tease. Then there's a twist, and "Boarding Gate" shifts gears into a protracted chase through the streets of Hong Kong. ("It becomes a B-movie," Argento says with winning candor in the DVD extras.) The cinematography is striking in this half--director Olivier Assayas has a flair for neon cityscapes--but a chase scene is a chase scene, and this one overstays its welcome.
For some, I imagine the movie's insistence on its own wised-up sophistication--the big city glamor of Paris and Hong Kong, Brian Eno on the soundtrack, and the stunt casting of Kim Gordon as a shady corporate player (a mistake: Gordon may the coolest person to have inhabited lower Manhattan in the past twenty five years, but as an actress she's wooden)--will be a bit much. For me, it was all just part of Assayas's jet set fantasy world. Only in a couple of performances, however, does "Boarding Gate" show any actual heart. Michael Madsen brings a certain burly gravitas to what could easily be just another rich guy role, and Asia Argento really shines. Her character slips back and forth between feral eroticism, femme fatale toughness, and dewy vulnerability, often multiple times in the same scene. There isn't a shred of psychological reality to be found here, but you don't care because it's so compelling to watch Argento go running off in five different directions at once. I get the feeling that her performance is the only thing in the film that worked exactly as intended. And, yes, for those eight minutes or so, she looks amazing.
Movie Review: A swirling mass of confusion saved only by Asia Argento
Summary: 2 Stars
My husband and I only watched this because of the provocative DVD cover and lived to regret it. Sure, Asia Argento looks sexy on the cover, giving the impression that this is some sort of sexy thriller. It really is neither - the sexy bits are all kind of fuzzy, and some of the sexy scenes end up being more brutal than sexy, and as for the thriller part, the meandering script adds more to one's confusion than answer questions.
The basic plot - Argento plays Sandra, an ex-hooker who has a sordid history with financier, Miles [Michael Madsen] who is based in Paris. Sandra needs money to buy herself a new life running a club partnership in Beijing, and this causes her to re-enter Miles' life as well as an Asian couple, Lester and Sue [Carl Ng and Kelly Lin]. A tryst gone wrong ends with an unexpected murder and Sandra finds herself on the run - taking off to Hong Kong where even more plot intrigues abound and the movie itself becomes a derailed mess.
There is even an appearance by Kim Gordon [of Sonic Youth] here - quite memorable if only because she is spewing Cantonese. At various points in the movie, we not only get an earful of English [and badly spoken English at times ], but also French and Cantonese.
As for eroticism, yes, there is a bit of that in the sex scenes between Sandra and Miles/ Sandra and Lester - but the chemistry really isn't very credible. What is credible though is Asia Argento's performance - she portrays a troubled woman convincingly, one who is able to exude a sense of the erotic whilst appearing demented. She really should be in better movies [not B-graders like this].
Final verdict: watchable for Argento's performance.
Movie Review: Prostitute, assassin, drug dealer or what?
Summary: 2 Stars
I will admit that the reason I wanted ot see this film is not so much because Asia Argento is in it bt because Michael Madsen is in it. His portrayals of bad guys has always fascinated me and I was curious to find out what he has for the audience to show this time around. As it turns out, we see more of Asia Argento who struts around in her underwear baring some impressive tatoos. To some she may seem sexy, to me she looks wasted, tired and trashy. Her character Sandra and Madsen's character Myles know each other from her not so distant past. She is a prostitute providing kinky sex to her high end clientele. Myles hires her to provide services for his business clients and she accepts it in hopes Myles will pay her $1M so she can open a club in Beijing and start a new life. But of course, Myles never pays out and Sandra tries her luck in selling drugs. When that business goes wrong too, she resigns to becoming assasin in hopes to get a payout that will allow her start anew. In any case, plot becomes confusing, Sandra seems to be ready to sleep with any man that comes along in hopes to get that final payout. One cannot but think that her character should just stick to what she does best - "be a prostitute because that is the only thing you are good at, honey". I have totally missed this movie and the mening of it, until I realized perhaps this is just a film about globalization - French call girl, providing services in England who hopes to start her own busienss in China. Now we are talking a plot. Employ this woman's best asset - her body - and we have a real business woman boarding gate at any international airport. How original.