Film Review: 'Borges and Me' Offers Charm but Lacks Poetic Depth

Marc Turtletaub's adaptation of Jay Parini's memoir about a road trip with Jorge Luis Borges is amiable and nostalgic but feels stretched beyond its natural length. The film builds on the anecdote with a colorful portrayal of Borges, yet the story remains thin despite its charm.

The review, filed from the Edinburgh Film Festival, highlights director Marc Turtletaub's adaptation of Jay Parini's 2020 memoir, which recounts a 1970s journey through the Scottish Highlands where the young American student escorted the blind Argentine literary figure. Critic Guy Lodge observes that the film treats Borges as a colorful character rather than a biographical subject, suggesting the anecdote's natural scope may not support a full feature runtime. The review positions the work as amiable and nostalgic, with charm compensating for narrative thinness, while noting the source material itself reads as an embellished tale.