Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (**3/4)

? This is the big-screen debut of the TV character created by Sacha Baron Cohen as part of Da Ali G Show. In that HBO reality show, Cohen transforms himself into three outlandish characters who interact with celebrities and others who aren’t in on the joke. The movie version incorporates a plot whereby Borat, said to be a Kazakh journalist, travels from his homeland, a misogynistic, anti-Semitic backwater, to make a documentary about the USA. (Hence the mangled syntax of the title and the cheap TV-style graphics we see.) Bookended segments take place in this fictional version of Kazakhstan, where Borat jovially introduces such figures as the town rapist and we get to see the annual “running of the Jews.” Most of the movie is a quasi-travelogue, with Borat and his manager meeting Americans in red and blue states.

+ A lot of the movie is flat-out hilarious and prompted a lot of laughter at the preview screening I attended. In the “real people” segments, Borat has it both ways. It’s funny when the people are shocked by Borat’s attitudes and/or ignorance, and funny (if disturbing) when they seem to agree. In other cases, such as when he appears on a local TV news show (which apparently aired), the people are just bewildered or made uncomfortable by the “Kazakh” customs such as men kissing on the cheek. I’m sure some people would be offended by all the anti-Jewish remarks of the sort not usually seen outside a Holocaust drama, but given that they emanate from a character who’s basically a buffoon (and played by a Jew), this seems an obtuse view.

- I was a fan of Da Ali G Show, and I think I still would rather watch that. The “documentary” segments only serve to accentuate the artificiality of the part added for the movie, which is to say the plot. I would have been happy if all or nearly all of the movie was just unsuspecting people talking to Borat, without all the stuff about having his money stolen and such. Although Cohen never breaks character, Borat does engage in some Jackass-style antics that, while comical, don’t seem like anything even an ignorant, anti-Semitic misogynist would do. All that being said, there was one particularly funny (if disturbing) sequence with Borat getting into a naked altercation.

= **3/4 [original rating **1/2] Cohen’s characters make me a little uncomfortable, either because I’m embarrassed for him or for the people he’s fooling, not all of whom deserve it. If you like this kind of humor, which is really a variation on shows like Candid Camera, that might not bother you, nor will the uneven plot.

IMDb link