Revered Argentine writer Jose Luis Borges is rendered a colorful, quirky agent to a young writer's creative and romantic awakening in Marc Turteltaub's amiable, loosely biographical film.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
Courtesy of Edinburgh American author Jay Parini’s 2020 memoir “Borges and Me: An Encounter” read as a charming extension of an anecdote any writer would dine out on for the rest of their life: the tale of how Parini, as a college student in the 1970s, was somehow partnered on a winding road trip through the Scottish Highlands with the venerable Argentine literary icon José Luis Borges. Like any good anecdote, it feels healthily embellished — Borges was doubtless a character, but is fashioned on the page into a Character — in ways that director Marc Turtletaub‘s enjoyable, good-natured screen adaptation appears to build upon. As a feature film, “Borges and Me” is perhaps extended beyond its natural capacity: It feels both a tall story and a thin one. But the charm is still there.
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