Jimmy Warden’s Borderline, starring Ray Nicholson and Samara Weaving, is an entertaining comedy thriller where you never know what’s going to happen next. I have to admit that watching Jack Nicholson’s son play a psycho killer to perfection was strangely satisfying. The film is fun; it’s gory at parts, and it’s unexpectedly emotional.
Set in 1990s Los Angeles, Borderline is about a man named Paul Duerson and his obsession with a pop star, Sofia. Let’s get one thing clear: Paul is obsessed with the idea of Sofia, and not really the person. He was madly in love with a pop star, and according to him, they’d been together for a while; they knew everything about each other, and they were at that stage in their relationship where popping the question was the next obvious thing. The only problem was that the real Sofia had no idea who he was.
Spoiler Alert
Why was Paul obsessed with Sofia?
We get a sense of Paul’s delusion when he proposed to Sofia’s bodyguard, William, assuming that he was Sofia. He felt the compulsive need to propose, and he had a vivid imagination, making the whole process quite easy for him. But soon after William accepted his proposal just to calm him down, Paul stabbed him with a dagger. He then went inside Sofia’s house and had a gala time before calling the police and admitting to the crime. It was said that Paul lost his sanity when his girlfriend passed away all of a sudden during one of Sofia’s concerts. He replaced his sorrow and pain with a mad obsession. It was almost as if Sofia had to pay the price for his girlfriend’s death by loving him at his worst.
William survived after the incident, but his daughter wanted him to find a new job. William assumed they were out of danger since Paul was locked up in a psychiatric institution. But he was in for a surprise. Paul wanted to marry Sofia, and to execute his plan, he had to break free from the hospital. He didn’t escape alone; he was accompanied by another patient, Penny, who suffered from severe mental issues and took great pleasure in killing people.
Paul’s trusted long-term friend, JH, set things up for the wedding ceremony. Paul had asked him to bring him a parcel and also a suspicious-looking trunk. Soon after the news of Paul and Penny’s escaping the mental hospital made it to the television news, they joined JH for a night full of adventure. Paul had everything planned, from freaking out William’s family and distracting the bodyguard to turning off the electricity at Sofia’s mansion for distraction and a little theatrics. William left his post and rushed home to protect his family, and there was just one security guard left to protect Sofia from three criminals, quite an impossible task! It only took Penny a few minutes to kill the guard, and she gleefully smiled after getting a taste of blood.
Sofia was at home with her boyfriend, Rhodes, who had just discovered that he was nothing but a PR stunt for the pop star. He was heartbroken and felt deceived. Sofia tried to console him, but he simply could not accept that their relationship had always been superficial. They decided it was best for Rhodes to leave, and just when he stepped out of the house, Paul entered the mansion. Rhodes couldn’t leave the mansion because the security guard outside, who was in charge of the gates, had been killed. Rhodes eventually found the power box and turned back the electricity.
Why did Sofia kill Penny?
Sofia was soon greeted by Paul. She knew he had mental issues, but watching him act as if they’d known each other for years was scary. Paul apologized for his absence, and he declared that they would get married that very night. He introduced Penny and asked her to get Sofia ready for the wedding ceremony. Penny, a French criminal with severe psychological issues, decided to help her friend because she found Paul entertaining. She possibly had platonic feelings for him, and she didn’t feel Sofia was as beautiful as Paul had described her to be. But to honor her friend’s wish, she helped Sofia with the wedding gown. Sofia asked Penny to bring her her makeup bag from her room, and when she stepped out, Rhodes entered. Sofia struck him with a guitar, assuming it was Penny, but she was glad to find out Rhodes was still around.
After regaining consciousness, Rhodes noticed Penny approaching Sofia from behind, and he pushed her aside. Once again, Rhodes was knocked unconscious, but this time with a baseball bat. Sofia and Penny got into a fight that took a brief pause when Penny discovered that there was a piano in the room. She was a passionate singer, and she requested Sofia for a duet. Sofia figured that was the easiest way to keep the psycho killer distracted, and she joined Penny. She was surprised to find out that Penny was quite talented, but she was soon reminded why a public life was not meant for her. All of a sudden, Penny struck Sofia and attempted to murder her. Perhaps it was envy that triggered her emotions, or maybe she simply felt the strong impulse to kill. She was about to set Sofia on fire when she stabbed her with a sharp object. Sofia didn’t want to burn her to death, but Penny did not leave her much of a choice. She once again attacked Sofia and attempted to kill her. Sofia locked her in the recording room and snuck a burning of paper inside, resulting in Penny’s painful death. Yet, before she died, Penny did not have any regrets; she’d instigated Sofia to do it, to burn her. Sofia had initially taken pride in the fact that she did not stoop down to the level of a psycho killer, but Penny proved her wrong by pushing her to the edge of her sanity, where she too felt compelled to kill another human being.
Why did Paul mistake Rhodes for Sofia?
Paul decided to check on Sofia, since it had been quite some time since Penny started getting Sofia ready. When he walked into Sofia’s room, Sofia was not there, and Rhodes was alone in the room. He perhaps assumed that Paul would kill him, but to his surprise, Paul mistook him for Sofia. As mentioned previously, Paul was in love with the idea of Sofia, and his brain often tricked him, and as long as he could marry Sofia in his delusional world, he was happy.
Rhodes kept up with the act to protect Sofia. It was gradually revealed that there was a pastor in the trunk, whom they’d abducted to get Paul and ‘Sofia’ married. Meanwhile, after noticing there was no one waiting outside his apartment building, William decided to drive to a police station with his wife and daughter. But JH intervened in his plan, and when William resisted too much, he shot him dead. Or at least that is what JH thought. His one-eyed vision tricked him, and the bullet ended up grazing William’s head. William survived, and he regained consciousness the next morning. As soon as he was awake, he rushed to rescue his family and Sofia.
Paul, dressed as the groom, took his position for the wedding ceremony at the church. The real Sofia stood in front of him, but he was displeased to see her. In his head, Rhodes was Sofia, and he asked the real Sofia to step down and allow his bride to take her position. Rhodes walked in wearing a wedding gown, and William played the role of the father-of-the-bride quite well. He greeted his family and kept up with the act. He sneakily handed Sofia a penknife before taking a seat in the audience. Sofia tried to object to the wedding because she believed she deserved to go through the horror since she was indirectly responsible for the trauma everyone in the room was experiencing. But Paul refused to give her any attention, and he begged the pastor to continue with the ceremony. Paul experienced a sense of euphoria when the pastor declared him and ‘Sofia’ married. He happily kissed his bride, and Rhodes just followed his cue.
We get a glimpse of how Paul imagined the scene; it was bright, colorful, and happy, unlike the grim reality. While they were kissing, Paul stabbed Rhodes. Perhaps out of compulsion, or possibly because he realized that the man standing in front of him was not Sofia, or maybe because he’d always secretly hated Sofia and blamed her for his girlfriend’s death. When we’re dealing with someone with psychological issues, there is no reasonable explanation. We can only guess what could’ve triggered Paul, but beyond that, there might as well be no reason for his actions.
What does the final scene suggest?
After Paul stabbed Rhodes, William punched him in the face. The pastor too expressed his frustration, and JH punched him back. William handled JH, while Paul watched the chaos unfold. Sofia grabbed hold of the dagger Paul had used to stab Rhodes, and she kicked in the face. Paul recognized Sofia by then, but it was too late. JH later held a gun to William’s daughter, Abby’s head, and threatened to kill her. He asked Sofia to drop the dagger and pass it to him. The dagger was lying on the floor and to his surprise, Rhodes got back on his feet and used the same dagger that he was stabbed with to slit JH’s throat.
During Borderline’s ending, we find out that in Paul’s imaginary world, his entire plan was a success, and he was happily married to Sofia, and everyone in the room celebrated the occasion. Whereas in reality, police had arrived at the scene, and they had arrested him. After seeing the lengths Rhodes was willing to go to protect her, Sofia wanted to give their relationship a second chance. William decided to finally leave his job because he was repeatedly reminded how dangerous it was, and he could not risk losing his family.
Borderline’s final scene is intense and moving. For over three minutes, a close-up shot of Paul plays on screen. The shot is framed in a way that allows us to imagine Paul’s world—elements that could have disrupted his imagination, such as the policeman driving the car, the siren, or the actual police car, for instance, were either replaced or eliminated. Paul wanted to believe that he was in a limousine and he and Sofia were about to go on their honeymoon. Purely from his emotions, one can gather how desperately Paul tried to hold on to his imagination. He wanted to believe that everything turned out the way he had planned, and he was about to live a happy life. But there were moments when he could sense holes in the fabric of his imagination, and he struggled to fix them. Perhaps there were instances when he was reminded of how tragic his life had turned out, but living with the sorrow was not something he’d mastered. He instead chose to go back to his imaginary world where the best days were yet to come, where he’d just gotten married to a pop star, and they were about to enjoy a blissful honeymoon in Maui.
