Boarding Gate (2008) Movie Information:

Boarding Gate (2008) Directed by: Olivier Assayas Boarding Gate (2008) Written by: Olivier Assayas Boarding Gate (2008) Cast: Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Loong Ng, Kelly Lin

Boarding Gate (2008) U.S. Distributor: Magnet Films Boarding Gate (2008) U.K. Distributor: Not available at this time

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Boarding Gate (2008) Synopsis:

The new film from acclaimed and adventurous French filmmaker Olivier Assayas, "Boarding Gate" is an erotic noir-thriller boasting an exciting international cast. Asia Argento plays sexy ex-prostitute Sandra, who is forced to flee London after a steamy S&M encounter with a debt ridden ex-lover (Michael Madsen) ends in violence. Fleeing to Hong Kong in search of a fresh start, she becomes involved with an attractive young couple, Lester (Carl Ng) and Sue (Kelly Lin), who promise to help her obtain papers and money. But nothing turns out as expected for Sandra, and she finds herself trapped in a sordid game of manipulation.

Boarding Gate (2008) Movie Review:

Filmmaker Oliver Assayas (Demonlover) has a quirk of exploring kinky, untrustworthy, and sinful characters through each of his films. The same is to be said about his latest film, Boarding Gate, which pins an ex-prostitute named Sandra (Asia Argento) in an underworld that is neither nice nor prevalent.

The film opens with Sandra reuniting with her ex-boss and lover Miles (Michael Madsen), whom he used to her for pleasure of his clients and himself. After a two incredible long dialogue exchanges as well as continuous sexual dialogue and brief encounters, Sandra finds herself on the run in Europe to Hong Kong with bad people chasing her. It is never made really clear why she is being chased from all different angles, but she was involved with drugs, stealing, and murder in the first act of the film. Aiding her in the escape from this underworld espionage are the wife and husband couple of Lester (Carl Ng) and Sue (Kelly Lin), in which Sandra is also having an affair with Lester.

Once the big twist of the film is revealed, it is unclear if this character is actually the real bad guy, a pawn, or a decoy. Sandra mostly runs around, gets half-naked, or naked, and swaps overlong conversations with one character after another.

Assayas really loses the viewer in the first twenty minutes of this boring and lifeless film that has no plot, no development, no character, and absolutely no energy. Besides being very confusing and hard to follow, Assayas hardly edits any sequences, and follows the characters with steadicam for what seems like an eternity. So many character pop up with no reason, and a third of the way into the film, ones does not care what really happens to the main character of Sandra. Boarding Gate is a really big mess that attempts to look into a criminal underworld with a character trying to escape and start a new life, but audiences will be left frustrated with boredom and scratching their heads trying to figure out the filmmaker’s intentions and discoveries.

Asia Argento is an edgy actress that mostly plays edgy and sexpot characters like Sandra, so it is not any new territory for her and she adds no believability to the character that would have audiences identify with her. Michael Madsen does his usual grizzled voice crime dog role, and also has his typical out of no where loud cursing lines. No one in the cast really stands out; it is like they are zombies.

Boarding Gate premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival and is just now getting distribution. This is just a horrible and flustering film from director Oliver Assayas. It is early, but this may be the worst film of the year.

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Boarding Gate (2008) review written by: Bailey Henderson