
A priest and his companion hunt silently through the fields, accompanied by a braying dog. They are armed and deadly. Their quarry is Camiel Borgman (Jan Bijvoet), living in military sparseness in an underground den, near companions Ludwig and Pascal. Camiel scrapes out with some difficulty, hitching a ride with a doomed truck driver on a relentless trip to the heart of suburbia. He passes by two odd women, Brenda and Ilonka, with whom he seems to share a history. When a dirt... (Full plot summary below)
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A priest and his companion hunt silently through the fields, accompanied by a braying dog. They are armed and deadly. Their quarry is Camiel Borgman (Jan Bijvoet), living in military sparseness in an underground den, near companions Ludwig and Pascal. Camiel scrapes out with some difficulty, hitching a ride with a doomed truck driver on a relentless trip to the heart of suburbia. He passes by two odd women, Brenda and Ilonka, with whom he seems to share a history. When a dirty Camiel arrives at the door of artist Marina and media executive Richard's expansive, designer-chic home, the shifting perceptions of Van Warmerdam's screenplay begin to displace and disorient the audience. Hallucinogenic elements dot the consciousness as Camiel shifts between the roles of victim and aggressor. He asks for a bath. He toys with Richard's jealousy. He is viciously beaten up by his cruelly intolerant host and left wounded on the floor. Marina seeks to assuage her guilt by allowing him a space for the night. She treats his wounds. She makes him some food. She begins to deceive her husband. And Camiel Borgman insistently starts to install himself in the house as his dark advances ebb and flow, push and pull. Marina is self-obsessed; Richard a casual racist; they employ a nanny Magot to look after their three small children, the youngest of whom, Isolde, sees Camiel early on and is responsive to his presence. "There is something that surrounds us," says Marina, fearfully, but she is no longer in control. Large dogs roam casually through the house. There are flashes of something sinister in the garden as Camiel waits, and watches. Soon he is inhabiting Marina's dreams. "Couldn't you come back in another capacity?," she asks him. "I could," he says, "...but it will have consequences.
Leave your thoughts about Borgman.
| Film Freak CentralWalter ChawA film that James Whale would have made given the chance. |
| TheFilmFile.comDustin PutmanTo watch the boundlessly unpredictable "Borgman" unpeel one disquieting layer at a time is to be simultaneously invigorated, terrified and humbled by the vastness of its macabre ambition. |
| Screen InternationalAllan HunterBorgman remains an elegantly teasing puzzle even as you begin to suspect there could be slightly less here than meets the eye. |
| Seventh RowAlex HeeneyAlthough Borgman can accurately be described as part psychological horror movie, part modern fairy tale, it unfolds within a world so realistic it's jarring and genuinely creepy like Rosemary's Baby. |
| Boston HeraldJames VerniereFunny Games, indeed. Creepy, spooky and nightmarish. |
| rec.arts.movies.reviewsLouis ProyectA home invasion movie that is more Godard than grindhouse, and a brilliant one at that. |
| OregonianMarc MohanWriter-director Alex van Warmerdam (who also plays one of Borgman's associates) drops vague hints of a supernatural, or even biblical, origin for his disruptive protagonist, but ultimately chooses to leave things up to, or perhaps beyond, interpretation. |
| About.comEric D. SniderThis humorous, subtly nightmarish tale could be the vigorous brain-boink you've been craving. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeA sly, insidious and intermittently hilarious domestic thriller. |
| Film.comJordan HoffmanBorgman‘s crafty, trickster-ish screenplay, always two steps ahead of you, keeps you rooting for clues, enough to put your ethics on temporary hold. |