Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Borgman, What the Hell?



When I stumbled upon Borgman, while searching for movies to watch, I was excited. The poster looked very intriguing. And I also found out that it was selected for the 86th Oscars for Best Foreign Film category. Naturally, my expectations were very high.

As I watched the movie, I hoped the movie will unfold. I watched every scene with huge expectations. I was hoping something will happen. A lot does take place. Often, murders. Maybe I should say massacre. Then the movie ended.

And the moral of the story is...

Well, often movies have a moral. They are, most of the time, quite evident. But Borgman left me wondering about it.

Not that I did not understand it because I didn't know Dutch. There were subtitles to help me out. In fact, there is hardly anything complicated in the movie. The movie is about a vagrant who enters an affluent household and wrecks havoc. But what it was trying to convey seemed like a mystery. I am certain a movie cannot get selected for Oscars for no reason.

Then I did something that no film reviewer should ever do. I dread talking about it and if I was a professional critic whose life depended on writing reviews, my career would be finished. I went searching on the net to actually understand what the movie was all about.

The movie is supposed to be a depiction of Satan. The vagrant being the Satan. And the family, the vulnerable human beings who are prone to jealousy, greed, lust, racism...How Satan destroys such human beings. Pretty Godly affair, I say.

Now it is about three weeks since I watched the movie. And almost everyday I have thought about the movie. I think I understand the movie better now, though it still feels mysterious. Nothing spectacular but yet haunting. Haunting you with an urge to understand it more.