The Boarder (2012) Reviews

• important theme but done in a low budget movie

  LiveLoveLead2015-08-22

  This movie is based on an important disorder - Reactive Attachment Disorder. RAD arises from a child's failure to form normal attachments to primary caregivers (their mother) in their first few years of life and can result from severe early experiences of neglect, abuse, abrupt separation from caregivers, frequent change of caregivers, or a lack of caregiver responsiveness. Children with attachment disorders have difficulty connecting to others and managing their own emotions. This results in a lack of trust and self-worth, a fear of getting close to anyone, anger, and a need to be in control. A child with an attachment disorder feels unsafe and alone. They often struggle with physical contact and can act out in manipulative and violent behavior. This movie is based on true events about an adopted child with a disturbing, but authentic, personality disorder found in severely neglected and/or abused children, (often foster children.) The movie has some good information, but it is delivered through poor acting and disjointed storytelling. The movie wasn't able to spend enough time setting up the characters and storyline, and the acting was so bad it was hard to feel any empathy for any of the characters which made the film depressing and hard to watch. I honestly don't know if I can recommend this movie because I'm sure there are better films or even better books that can portray this condition in a better light. And although the subject matter is interesting, on its own as a movie, it just was not that entertaining, in my humble opinion... so an average rating for a below average film from me. [2015]

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• True for the most part; not true at the end (Possible spoiler)

  Polly_Sigh2015-06-15

  I'd give it an 8 for it's accurate portrayal of the mom's experience. I'll call her "Bad Parent", as in the Good Cop, Bad Cop scenario. I was the "Bad Parent" in our own personal story. Fortunately we did not have to deal with animal killing or torture, but there were an awful lot of fights at school, lying, theft and drugs toward the end. There were also incompetent/uninformed therapists, which speaks to RAD not being very well studied or assessed. However, for portraying such an easy "cure" - (a big hard hug) for RAD, I'd give it a 2. There is no fix or cure, only learning to cope and survive until the child is out of the house. A child with RAD will likely grow up to be either a psychopath or a sociopath. The checklists of signs and symptoms for RAD, psychopathy and sociopathy are remarkably alike. I hate painting such a dismal picture of foster parenting disturbed children, because bouncing around the system does not help them, but it was wrong of the Social Worker to hide Carl's medical history from Mom the first time around. Sometimes, as Dee Wallace's character said, "Love is not enough". For those of you who have lived this experience and weren't fostering for money; (folks fostering for money DO exist), it may be easy to see your own situation. Find a support group like Carl's family did and be willing to admit that this may be bigger than you can "fix". Also, good luck recovering from the experience. It's been 10 years since J. left the house, but there are still many feelings surrounding the entire experience.

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• Interesting topic but unbearable to watch

  jmdarden-251022019-03-06

  Okay, not sure about anybody else but in my view, the only thing worse than the acting in this, um, movie is the "Christian" aspect, dropped like verbal bombs in every few sentences in the first few sickeningly sweet minutes. We get it, a perfect family - you don't have to be Christian for that. Honestly, I'm bailing before 10 minutes, the acting and over- enhanced digital color are making me nauseous. This topic interests me, thought I might learn some things but can't even get there due to the d grade, TV-movie-of-the-week production. Maybe the Christian budget couldn't swing it, ha ha, given the billion dollar industry that it is...

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• Watched because the topic interested me

  jmdarden-251022019-03-06

  But OMG I didn't make it past the first 15 minutes. The acting is worse than anything I've ever seen, the glorified color (literally, the visual appearance of the obvious digital enhancement) making the scenes sickeningly sweet is unbearable. I thought the topic might be good but wasn't able to even get there.

• nauseatingly awful

  jdusea2018-08-30

  Terrible script. Terrible acting. Ridiculous, unbelievably-perfect, host family. The story could have made a good movie, if it were made by a completely different cast/crew. Don't be fooled by anyone rating this anything above a 3 max.