I tend to, overall, enjoy the films of Olivier Assayas, but I know that he creates interesting and challenging art. If I dislike something that he makes then I may end up REALLY disliking it. Boarding Gate is one of his films that I really disliked, yet there's still enough here to have made me feel it was worthwhile. It's just a shame that he made such a major mistake in casting the central figure here. Asia Argento, probably not through any fault of her own, is generally not a very good actress. She can be fine in the right roles, but I think that being praised for years by her father, who would often place her in a variety of twisted and disturbing scenarios, has given her a false impression of her own level of talent, which is sadly very low.
Argento plays a woman named Sandra here, and Sandra has spent years helping out various people by using her sexuality to gain information, confidence, and time. Her main "employer" was a man named Miles Rennberg (Michael Madsen), but she now seems to be focused on developing relationships with Lester (Carl Ng) and Sue Wang (Kelly Lin). What unfolds is a tale of treachery, attempted shady business deals, and Sandra moving further and further into dangerous waters.
Although it's sometimes an interesting study of people using one another in different ways, and Assayas also uses the main premise to show business conducted by people who are happy to see others literally fucked over, Boarding Gate just doesn't make anything interesting enough in the scenes that fall in between moments of Argento being sexy (for those who find her sexy . . . I'm not in that group, unfortunately). The low-key approach to the material keeps the characters, and the potential divide between their words and actions, in front of anything else, which would be fine if those characters were as interesting as Assayas seems to think they are.
Aside from the weak Argento in the main role, you also get disappointment from Madsen, apparent disinterest from Ng, and nobody else to watch with interest. Almost nobody. Thankfully, Lin is excellent in her role, and it's a shame that her character wasn't developed to figure much more prominently in the way that events play out. She gets more to do in the second half, but I would have preferred the movie to be about her life, what information she has and what she chooses to do with it, rather than all about Argento's character.
Look, if you like Argento (and I know many people do) then you may enjoy this film a fair bit more than I did. You might also enjoy the performance from Madsen more than I did. So you should give this a watch, especially if you're a fan of other Assayas movies. I find it to be one of his worst, and I'd warn most people to stay far away from it.
3/10
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