Boarding Gate (2007)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Olivier Assayas

Writer:

Olivier Assayas (writer)

Release Date:

22 August 2007 (France)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

She's losing control again

Plot:

An Italian woman who lives in London has a passionate affair with a former financial big gun. She also had a second lover...

Plot Keywords:

Gun | Italian Woman | Bare Breasts | Murder By Gunshot | Gunfire

Cast

Asia Argento	...	Sandra
Michael Madsen	...	Miles Rennberg
Kelly Lin	...	Sue Wang
Carl Ng	...	Lester Wang
Kim Gordon	...	Kay
Alex Descas	...	Andrew
Joana Preiss	...	Lisa
Sau-Ming Tsang	...	Abacus Boss (as Raymond Tsang)
Bing Hei Chim	...	Abacus Worker #1 (as Jim Ping Hei)
Kim Lee Wing	...	Abacus Worker #2
Fan Wei Yee	...	Abacus Worker #3 (as Ricky Wong)
Boss Mok	...	Mr. Ho
Régis Vidal	...	DJ at Vega
François-Renaud Labarthe	...	Night Watchman
Mustapha Abdellah	...	Security Guard

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, sexual content, language and some drug material.

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

France | Luxembourg

Language:

English | French | Cantonese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | South Korea:18 | Portugal:M/16 | UK:18 | Australia:MA (2008) | Netherlands:12 | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | New Zealand:R16

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Canal+

improves as it goes along

"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.