For those who don’t know, Anza Borrego is a national park in San Diego County that runs along the border of Mexico. Besides possessing breathtaking biodiversity and eye-candy views, it is also an unforgiving desert that never fails to remind those wandering its landscape of exactly who is in charge. It’s a fantastic locale to set a thriller and writer-director Jesse Harris has done just that with his compelling Borrego.
The film stars Lucy Hale as a botanist who is scouring the Borrego desert floor for an invasive species of plant that could not be a better metaphor for drug cartels that utilize the gorgeously harsh stretch of land to bring in drugs into America. Specifically—in Borrego—fentanyl, and how the insatiable demand for it in the states is skyrocketing, thus creating the life and death situation that Hale’s Elly finds herself in after witnessing a plane crash merely yards away from her.
Leynar Gomez’s Tomas was piloting that aircraft. He survived the crash and is desperate to get the drugs from the aircraft to the ruthless Guillermo (Jorge A. Jimenez). When Elly comes upon the plane and witnessing Tomas crawling from its wreckage, she sees the bags of drugs and more importantly, the handgun pointed at her. She quickly dives back into her Jeep and peels out in reverse as the weapon fires repeatedly, striking her windshield.
Elly has backed herself into a rock and now she must be resourceful. She pleads with Tomas to let her live, due to the fact that it is nightfall in the desert, and they are miles from the nearest official “road.” She will guide him to where he’s supposed to drop off the drugs, even though it is going to be a perilous walk that encompasses over 50 miles. Meanwhile, Guillermo was waiting for a plane that never landed and is now scouring the desert in search of Tomas, his drugs, and will not hesitate to take out anyone who gets in his way.
The key to whether Harris’ entire endeavor works or not lies on the shoulders of Hale, and also her ability to create incredibly specific chemistry with Gomez. There’s a haunting backstory to Elly that is organically revealed as the two bonds over their multiple-day hike through some stunning scenery. Hale, the Pretty Little Liars veteran, shows off some serious thespian chops and makes what could have been a run-of-the-mill drug trafficking tale and elevates it by crafting a character that audiences immediately connect to within the film’s opening moments. She also succeeds with Gomez in creating an adversarial back and forth that is not only believable but its ebbs and flows toss Stockholm Syndrome right out the window.
Gomez has many moments to shine as well. He is not your usual cinematic drug trafficker. There is a reason why he is in that desert at that particular time, just like Elly. Fate is a funny thing. The Costa Rica native balances being menacing and understanding as if it was on the tip of a tiny tack. It’s a marvel to witness. Hale and Gomez collectively spend a lot of time together and that is the heart of the movie, but it isn’t the only connection that makes it beat.
Jose (Nicholas Gonzales) is a San Diego County Sheriff in charge of the Borrego area that from all appearances is quite a thankless job. He is doing his best at work, and at home, raising his teenage daughter Alex (Olivia Trujillo)—who coincidentally meets and spends time with Elly before a plane drops into her world. Gonzales and Trujillo are terrific and play their part to perfection in bringing these seemingly unrelated characters into the crosshairs of a fentanyl crisis that is plaguing America.
Harris frequently makes that point and his use of this tale as emblematic of the systemic problem facing society today with the opioid crisis is commendable, albeit a tad of a reach at times. Borrego is a story that can stand on its own. It doesn’t need the real-world tether that the filmmaker ties his story to via informational tidbits that bookend the entire film. It’s not a bad addition by any means. I’m just saying I think the film itself spoke everything Harris wanted to say, without quantifying his tale in real-world statistics.
Still, Borrego is a thriller worth investing your emotional energy and time in. The actors form an electric ensemble. Then, there is the unforgettable and the divine double-barreled excellence of cinematographer Octavio Arias and composers The Newton Brothers. Arias and the Newtons have collaborated to bring the beauty and the peril of Anza Borrego to life in a manner that adds priceless layers to the experience.
Grade: B+