Borderline

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.

"Borderline" is just that. Borderline. Representing little more than a pay check for a slew of actors and production people, "Borderline" is a B-flick from the get go. Gershon is at the center as a prison psychiatrist whose ex-husband is murdered after securing custody of the divorced couple's two daughters. Gershon, who just happens to be dating an investigator on the case, is suspect and spends the run time trying to convince everyone, including the audience, of her innocence. With a threadbare plot, an uneven portrayal by Gershon, and ordinariness in all aspects of the film, there's little reason to spend time with "Borderline" unless you happen to surf it on cable and are in the mood for a convoluted mystery flick. (C-)

If having a strong screen presence means that it's difficult for viewers to keep their eyes off you, then Gina Gershon certainly has "it" (the fact that she looks about 10 years younger than her actual age doesn't hurt, either). So it's a shame that her talent is wasted in completely average thriller fare such as this. It's also nice to see Michael Biehn again, but he has the standard cop-romantically-involved-with-the-main-suspect role (actually, I found his partner more enjoyable). Sean Patrick Flanery has the "obsessive psycho" role - a role we've seen about a million times before - and he doesn't bring anything new or creative to it. His uninspired performance is one of the reasons this film is nothing-special; the "TV-movie-of-the-week"-style direction is another. The plot holds your interest until the end, but the "moment of revelation" comes through the oldest trick in the book. I was disappointed. (**)

Love this one a lot.

thumbs up :)

best crime thriller movie 2002

Borderline is definitely a better thriller , worth the watch.