Directed by: Jimmy Warden
Written by: Jimmy Warden
Starring: Ray Nicholson, Samara Weaving, Eric Dane
Release Date: March 14, 2025
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)
Borderline (2025), starring Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, and Eric Dane, is marketed as a dark comedy but delivers a confused, tensionless thriller with no real laughs and a flat narrative.
Jimmy Warden’s Borderline wants desperately to be a stylish, dark comedy, but what unfolds is a disjointed mix of limp suspense and failed humor. Despite a cast packed with talent—Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, and Eric Dane—the movie feels lazy, incoherent, and tonally confused.
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A Stalker Comedy Without Comedy
Eric Dane plays Bell, a hapless bodyguard assigned to protect Sofia (Weaving), a famous pop star. Bell’s incompetence is on full display in the opening sequence, where he confronts Duerson (Nicholson), a deeply disturbed fan who has been stalking Sofia long enough that Bell and Duerson are almost friendly. Rather than calling the police when Duerson shows up at Sofia’s door late at night, Bell tries to parent him out of the situation.
Things spiral quickly. Duerson stabs Bell and enters Sofia’s mansion, gleefully playing around as wacky music attempts (and fails) to signal humor. While Bell bleeds out on the porch, Duerson calls 911 on himself—an event we’re told about rather than shown. Six months later, Bell returns to work, scarred and shaken, but Sofia’s excitement over his return doesn’t last. Duerson, now escaped from a mental facility with his eccentric accomplice Penny (Alba Baptista), is plotting to kidnap and marry Sofia, whether she likes it or not.
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A Hero Without Heroics
Rather than growing into a redemption arc, Bell continues to make foolish decisions that derail the story. He’s tricked into leaving Sofia unprotected, kidnapped alongside his sister and daughter, and survives only through dumb luck rather than skill. Dane plays Bell with a baffling lack of emotion, making the character feel like an afterthought in his own story.
Nicholson, meanwhile, tries to inject humor into Duerson, portraying him as an offbeat, unpredictable stalker. Unfortunately, the script and direction don’t give him the support he needs, and his comedic energy clashes with the flat, grounded tone of the rest of the film.
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Flat Direction, Wasted Talent
Borderline feels like it’s aiming for an absurd, heightened world where danger and humor coexist. Instead, Warden’s direction plays everything straight, draining scenes of tension and atmosphere. The editing feels arbitrary, the score is forgettable, and the supposed comedic beats land with a thud.
Even Samara Weaving, usually a vibrant and captivating presence (Ready or Not, Azrael), looks confused here. One scene has her reluctantly singing a Celine Dion duet with Penny, the unhinged French accomplice. The moment briefly sparks to life before the film retreats to its dull kidnapping plot.
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A Lazy 90s Setting
Adding to the confusion is the film’s late-90s setting, which serves no real purpose other than to avoid explaining why no one can call the police. Instead of feeling like a stylish period piece, it feels like a shortcut to sidestep narrative logic. That laziness extends to nearly every aspect of the film, from its limp visual style to its underdeveloped characters.
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Final Thoughts
Borderline has all the ingredients of a cult dark comedy—a talented cast, a deranged stalker premise, and a director with genre experience (Warden co-wrote Cocaine Bear). But the execution is so flat and lifeless that the movie never finds its tone. It’s neither suspenseful enough to work as a thriller nor funny enough to justify its absurdity. What’s left is a frustrating, forgettable misfire.
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