By GABRIELLA FOOR
Starring Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson and Eric Dane
Written and directed by Jimmy Warden
Magnet Releasing
(Editor’s note: May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In observance of the vital role mental health plays in our lives and its importance to our favorite genre (for better or worse), columnist Gabriella Foor presents a very special FRACTURED MIND movie review. Mental illness is a sensitive subject. As always, Gabriella’s views are her own and do not necessarily represent those of RUE MORGUE or its publisher.)
Channeling the feverish atmosphere of the 1990s, BORDERLINE attempts an in-depth and darkly humorous look at the frenzy surrounding female pop stars. Because this rather flat horror comedy alludes to the 1996 stalking incident when a mentally ill man followed Madonna, I am not sure if characters or references are strong enough for younger viewers to catch that this is roughly based on a true story. While its themes should dominate the picture and carve out a path for female empowerment in adversity, it diverts into such heavy satire of mental illness and obsession that some characters become caricatures. The directorial debut of screenwriter Jimmy Warden, BORDERLINE treads the same route as his hit Cocaine Bear. Unfortunately, his characters become lost in a story that openly exploits the mentally ill and dumbs down the women whose brilliance brought them such unwanted attention. Failing to generate tension or humor around the situation, the film loses its identity.
It’s 1990-something, Los Angeles, and Sofia (Samara Weaving) is the pop star of the moment, plastered on every wall, billboard and television screen. The film begins after dark, with a ring at the door of Sofia’s mansion, where her bodyguard, Bell (Eric Dane), is on duty alone. Outside, dressed to the nines and holding a rose, obsessive fan Paul Duerson (Ray Nicholson) declares that tonight, he will propose to the pop star. Bell dismisses the delusional man. Soon, the doorbell rings again. Paul is back, but this time he is holding a knife to his own throat, plausibly threatening suicide. He tricks Bell into getting close and stabs him in the gut. Leaving him to bleed out, Paul breaks into Sofia’s mansion, exploring as sirens approach in the distance.
Jumping forward six months, Sofia and her basketball star friend and partner Rhodes (Jimmie Fails), presumably channelling Dennis Rodman) film each other. Bell is out of the hospital, much to everyone’s delight. In a conversation with his daughter, Bell realizes she sees his job for what it is; He is a human shield, a “less-valuable life” in her words. “He called again today,” she says, indicating that the institutionalized Paul Duerson is still fixated on him. It’s revealed that Paul is developing an escape plan with the help of someone on the outside. As Sofia parties the night away, a news report blares about the escape of violent inmate Paul Duerson. Two people have been killed in his desperate bid for freedom.
The film isn’t a complete failure. The camera work is good, and a solid soundtrack takes the viewer back in time. Some scenes and characters manage to elicit some laughs, like the beat cop who sure can dance, even though he’s supposed to be on watch (how L.A.!). Shot in bold colors, it evokes the bygone age when pop stars were more enigmatic, less accessible through things like social media or conventions. BORDERLINE paints a glamorous yet faded picture of the women we placed on pedestals and demanded not to fall.
The title references the 1984 hit Madonna song. However, that wasn’t the first thing I thought of when I saw it (more on that later). Nicholson’s performance as Duerson is over the top. He’s almost cartoonish in his mannerisms, while Dane’s performance is uncharacteristically subdued. Weaving has the difficult task of bringing a large persona to life, and with this script, we only see glimpses of warmth and humanity through a cold celebrity persona, egocentric and victimized, even though her bodyguard was the one stabbed. Weaving capitalizes on rare moments of kindness, but these instances get lost as the film progresses. Essentially playing Madonna with other influences such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, she comes off as a hollow amalgamation of famous female musicians. Sofia is an icon, not a person, and this is how we are supposed to think of her amid this obsession. The only characters that do not exist in this bubble that the rich and the famous live in are Rhodes and Bell, who provide minimal reprieve from Sofia’s vanity and Duerson’s obsession.
In BORDERLINE, we have mental health patients who are broadly generalized as violent. Seeming to delight in things like having vomit spewed in their faces or the abject torture of innocents, the film makes patients seem subhuman. Thankfully, Duerson’s past is somewhat fleshed out, as is his perspective on events, ironically making him more pitiable than detestable. He is labeled a “dangerous sociopath” in the film’s description, which makes this even more strange to research, as some believe people with this disorder can feel love, and the examples here are Duerson’s many clichéd gestures he believes are loving. Some experts in sociopathy say that due to a diminished capacity for empathy, “the population does not contain the world’s most eligible bachelors,” while others state they can love, just in different forms. In this case, the only form of love I see that fits with Duerson is “fascination-based” love in which someone becomes fixated on a person and believes they have feelings of love. Initially, I thought the title was a reference to Borderline Personality Disorder, which features fear of abandonment, real or perceived. Instead, Duerson is an obsessive sociopath, a completely different, complex personality disorder.
This film also relies on an instance of escape from a mental institution, followed by a maniacal crime spree. In Madonna’s true crime case, the man stalking her did escape custody, but there was no trail of blood, and he was apprehended fairly easily. I understand fiction and hyperbole, but not when it instills a fear of the mentally ill. As noted in some literature, escape is rare and often addressed quickly. For eight years, 654 high-security forensic patients were monitored to understand efforts for unauthorized leave. During this time, there were only 59 escapes, most of which returned to the hospital voluntarily or were caught within a week. This study also showed that only a minority of patients had gone on to commit any offenses. News reports concerning patient escapes can also be alarmist, with a 2008 BBC article alleging the escapes of 116 patients within a year, focusing on a particularly violent patient in its coverage. Sadly, BORDERLINE keeps with the theme of sensationalizing mental illness. Reveling in delusion, putting the Hollywood lifestyle on blast and generally making a light of some serious stuff that I’m sure was terrifying, BORDERLINE capitalizes on critical and perennially relevant topics in an attempt to create satire.
Sources:
Jeandarme, I., Vandenbosch, S., Boucké, J., Dekkers, I., Goktas, G., & Vanhopplinus, P. (2023). Hospital break. An eight-year review of escapes and absconds from two high-security forensic centers. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 88, 101886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2023.101886
Exworthy, T., & Wilson, S. (2010). Escapes and absconding from secure psychiatric units. The Psychiatrist, 34(3), 81–82. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.108.02437
Quora. (2017, September 12). Are People With Sociopathic Personalities Capable Of Love? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/12/are-people-with-sociopathic-personalities-capable-of-love/
Can Sociopaths Love or Even Fall in Love? | HealthyPlace. (n.d.). www.healthyplace.com. https://www.healthyplace.com/personality-disorders/sociopath/can-sociopaths-love-or-even-fall-in-love
