Olivier Assayas' latest is a contrived snoozer.
The ultra-modern world of
Boarding Gate
, the new erotic global thriller by Olivier Assayas (
Irma Vep, Demonlover
), is one of plate glass, polished steel and cool dealings. The only warmth or wood-or any other sign of life before it becomes, as is suggested, purely transactional-is found in the trousers of the heterosexual male, er, members of the audience.***image2***
This elevated state, this raised consciousness, this heightened awareness-it's all a direct result of Italian actress Asia Argento, who stars as Sandra,
Boarding Gate
's lithe, brutally sexy anti-heroine. Argento-daughter of Italian horror director Dario Argento and actress Daria Nicolodi, half-sister of actress Fiore Argento and granddaughter of producer Salvatore Argento-is as famed for her artistic lineage as she is for her artistic lingerie.
But it is Argento's "courageous" disrobing-displaying the tattoo angel perched counterintuitively on her pubic bone-that has garnered her the most fans and that is, unfortunately, the central attraction in this un-intriguing story of international intrigue.
Boarding Gate
's principal pleasure is the pleasure principal-a result of Assayas' script, which is a contrived mess designed to showcase scenes (chase, S&M-ish sex) and locales (Paris, Hong Kong) rather than to have any inherent dramatic gravitas, not to mention sense.
This mess has Sandra, a former-prostitute-turned-drug-runner, returning to her old beau, Miles (Michael Madsen), for some break-up and break-out-the-handcuffs sex (too short-lived but still mesmerizing) and some ***image1***of the most pointless, soporific, feigned-cool dialogue scenes in recent memory. These stretch on ad nauseam between European-style cigarette drags and pensive posing.
Following these insufferable episodes, Sandra is thrown into a global game of double-crosses (as I'm sure its DVD box will read) that include nightclubs, GHB-slipping, Asian assassins, an unnecessary cameo by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and a lamely telegraphed "trick your captors by putting the dead person's clothes on" scene. It's
The Bourne Ultimatum
or
La Femme Nikita
without pacing, original action or a compelling story.
There will be those for whom a black-gun-toting, black-heels- and black-undergarments-wearing Argento will be reason enough to attend. But even the libidinally lured-once they've gotten off-will find that
Boarding Gate
's dialogue gives new meaning to the term "pillow talk." Bring one.
