Distúrbio Mortal

I'll let you know now, I've seen better thrillers. But "Borderline" is definitely worth the watch. I am a huge fan of the hot Sean Patrick Flannery(one of the world's most under rated actors), the beautiful Gina Gershan(again, very under rated), and the handsome Michael Biehn(he's a good actor; no comment). So, when I saw the cover to this movie, I was immediately excited to see such fine actors together. The story is about a woman who is fighting for custody of her two daughters and looses them to her ex-husband due to her jail-psychiatrist job that every in-mate admires her for. When her ex-husband and his fiancée' are murdered the night that she looses her children to him, things look suspicious obviously. She wanted her kids, she was still the one to take it all in her ex's will, and that she wanted him out of her and her kid's lives. Sean Patrick's role comes in as a former in-mate who is completely obsessed with Gina's character. He wants to be with her and her family, but Gina insists that he is the murderer of her ex and his fiancée'. Will Gina be proved innocent with the help of her supposed-to-be-not-because-they-work-together boyfriend, Michael Biehn, or will Sean slip up and confess his dark secrets? You'll just have to find out.

8/10

Borderline is definitely a better thriller , worth the watch.

Borderline plays around with the grey areas of the human mind that control impulse, empathy and rational thinking, showing (albeit in slightly stunted and blunt B movie form) us a recently released psychiatric patient with Borderline Personality Disorder who becomes obsessed with bis former doctor. Gina Gershon is Lila Coletti, a prison psychiatrist who is very good at her job. Maybe too good. When she sanctions the release of Ed Baikman (Sean Patrick Flanery), she has no idea the heap of trouble she's headed for. Ed is anything but rehabilitated, just a charmer who's great at disguising his instability. Pretty soon people in Lila's life start to get mysteriously injured, and even killed. She is protected by her boyfriend, Detective Macy Kobacek (a slick Michael Biehn), but it may not be enough to put a stop to Ed's crafty, dangerous game. Gershon has always been a strong force, despite being saddled with a lot of... I don't want to use the M word, but let's say, promiscuous roles. She holds her own as a lead female protagonist in a real world context even better, and I wish she'd get more roles like this. Flanery is creepy without resorting to gimmicky grimacing or run of the mill psycho stuff. Biehn is Biehn, he's just a legend in any role. Most of the acting besides those three is pretty patchy, but one can only hope for so much with this kind of low budget fare. Worth it for fans of these actors (they're all favesies of mine), and a not too shabby little thriller.

A thriller is supposed to thrill, among other things. But the strongest emotions that "Borderline" manages to build in the viewer are confusion and an odd feeling. The odd feeling mainly comes with where the movie was shot. Although it's made clear that the story is taking place in California, you don't need to watch the closing credits to know that the movie was shot in a foreign country (South Africa, to be exact.) The buildings and scenery don't look quite right, especially since it's all mostly photographed in a manner that gives everything dull and dark colors. The real problems with the movie, however, are what I stated in my summary line. At the end of the movie, there are a number of plot threads that haven't been properly resolved, so it's hard to figure out who did exactly what and why. Even director Evelyn Maude Purcell was apparently bewildered by the twists and turns, because she doesn't manage to build up any tension or suspense. At best, the movie feels strictly routine. There's nothing here to grab an audience's attention, so I say avoid it. It's not the worst movie ever made, but oddly there are a lot of worse movies out there that are more interesting to watch than this movie.

This picture was filmed in Capetown, South Africa with expert talent and a script far superior to a lot of recent Hollywood thriller crap (like Bullock's MURDER BY NUMBERS, Spacey's DAVID GALE and any of those Ashley Judd potboilers she made with Morgan Freeman, to name a few). This is a nicely contrived murder mystery featuring a strong female lead and some intelligent supporting players; even the obligatory child factor was nicely handled in this particular case. It's an adult murder noir with some smart character interplay. Choice of it's kind.