DIRECTOR: Mary Agnes Donoghue
CAST:
Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, Elijah Wood, Thora Birch, Sheila McCarthy,
Eve Gordon, Louise Latham
REVIEW:
Every so often, among the summer blockbuster action-adventure flicks or romantic comedies, a quiet little low-key film slips through without hardly receiving attention. For the audiences who fill the aisles for the latest slasher movie or teen comedy, Paradise would probably hold no interest whatsoever. A thoughtful, deliberately-paced drama, it fell largely under the radar in its opening year despite featuring popular- at least at the time- stars Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. But some caught Paradise either at the time or, like myself, years later, and discovered a nice little movie about four people, two adults and two kids, who grow emotionally through their relationships with each other.
Willard (a ten-year-old Elijah Wood in one of his first significant roles) is a highly intelligent boy but a socially awkward one who spends much of his time after school running from bullies. His father has been away for months on end, ostensibly unable to communicate onboard his submarine. Willard’s mother (Eve Gordon) doesn’t want him to know the truth about their disintegrating marriage, and with a baby on the way and needing some time to herself to figure things out, she sends him to spend the summer with her lifelong friend Lily Reed (Melanie Griffith) and her husband Ben (Don Johnson, at the time married to Griffith), who are having some problems of their own. With unrealizing irony, she tells them that she envies the simple life they have together; ironic because we soon see there is little about Ben and Lily to envy. Neither ever says anything overt, but there is a deafening silence between them; when they speak to each other at all it is in terse, clipped sentences, and Ben spends most of his time at the local bar or aboard his shrimp boat while Lily remains at the house. Willard isn’t thrilled about being dumped in between them, but his summer brightens when he makes friends with a local tomboy named Billie (Thora Birch). After initially being simply resigned to the situation, Ben and Lily also bond with the boy, who helps fill an emotional void in their lives. Over the course of the summer, Billie brings Willard a little out of his shell, and Ben and Lily’s mutual fondness for him sparks the hope that they can repair their own relationship.
If you’re looking for an action movie, or a comedy, or a thriller, Paradise is not the movie for you. Almost nothing in the way of action occurs, and the pace on the whole is deliberate, occasionally running a little toward the sluggish. But it’s a nicely-constructed little drama built around a familiar theme. Director Mary Agnes Donoghue has a human touch; Johnson and Griffith have a dramatic, effective scene together in which they finally address issues that have gone unsaid for far too long, and a number of the smaller bonding moments between the characters are genuinely touching. The film makes good use of its natural locations; the marshes, the slow-moving river opening into the sea...it all seems to fit the thoughtful, gently flowing tone of the story. At first I thought Paradise moved a little slow, but after a repeat viewing I came to admire the way it takes its time to say what it wants to say. Too many movies these days feel rushed. Paradise lets its story unravel at a gracefully leisurely pace. It hits a few missteps; Donoghue sometimes loses the intimate human feel and gives in to the temptation to go for the melodrama that interrupts the flow of the story like a rock thrown into a pond. The most obvious example is an overly dramatic, contrived climactic scene that feels tacked-on to supply the movie with an “exciting” ending when it requires no such thing.
Another thing Paradise has going for it are the performances, which capture the right low-key note in keeping with the tone of the story. No one is over-the-top, and no one hogs the camera. The four principal actors craft down-to-earth characters. Don Johnson, best-known for the popular TV series Miami Vice, proves himself with this and other meaty dramatic roles as a capable, sometimes underrated actor. Ben is a cynical, somewhat caustic man, but his indifferent demeanor hides a genial nature hardened by emotional wounds. He doesn’t make a very welcoming first impression, but he soon warms to Willard, and both he and Lily seem to come a little more to life in his presence. Melanie Griffith gives an approximately equal performance, effective as a wounded woman who has closed herself off to keep going. To Ben, she is the Ice Queen, but her lifeless countenance is a mask for a person living in quiet pain. At the same time, Griffith keeps Lily from seeming cold, instead coming across as a naturally warm woman who has retreated within herself because it’s the only way she can keep going. We see that Ben does love her, but isn’t willing to join her in what he sees as her numb, walking-dead existence. 
Unlike some less talented child actors, Elijah Wood does not wear out his welcome by trying to be excessively cute (although his large eyes and preternaturally serious face does give him a slightly unconventional appeal). In fact, Wood gives the most low-key and restrained performance in the film, often conveying emotions more with his big expressive eyes than his dialogue. He’s not a typical ten-year-old boy; he seems solemn at first before loosening up with the Reeds and Billie, and even then his expression is often serious and observant. But Wood shows the sweet boy who wants and deserves to be loved beneath the introverted demeanor, and gives a quiet, serious performance without resorting to “cutesy” affectations. Also charming- in a more immediately obvious way- is Thora Birch as the tomboy Billie, spunky, feisty, natural, and exceedingly appealing. Birch and Wood were both nominated by the Young Star Awards; Birch won. She gives the more energetic, attention-getting performance, more flamboyant than the low-key Wood, but each is solid, and I would be hard-pressed to pick the superior one. When Birch is allowed to be her precocious self and Wood to follow his quiet acting style, both are splendid, but they sometimes seem a little forced when the script slips into one of its more contrived moments. Certain scenes have the feel that perhaps Wood was pushed into acting a little more dramatically. But there is a real rapport between Elijah Wood and Thora Birch; they have a natural, unforced chemistry, and seem to be leveling with their characters rather than trying to ram their cuteness down our throats. Louise Latham has a curious role as a somewhat uptight, artistic neighbor of Billie’s who insists on good manners but seems to warm a little to the decidedly unladylike tomboy. She seems intended to be a more significant character than she turns out to be, and I suspect that she may have had a larger part which ended up on the cutting room floor. Sheila McCarthy is Billie’s obnoxious single mother, who prattles incessantly about the powerful effect she is convinced she has on men but, revealingly, is resigned to marrying a man of whom she remarks, “sometimes just the sight of him walking across the room makes my flesh crawl.” This character is a little comedic but still three-dimensional and a believable person.
At its core, Paradise is a fine drama, not a great film, but sometimes funny, sometimes touching, and nicely-acted. Worth a look.
3 STARS
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