obscure movie review #7: Paradise

[Dominic]

Paradise, 1991, Mary Agnes Donoghue

I caught this movie on cable a few years ago and it's grown into one of my favorites. It's about a little boy, Will, (Elijah Wood) who is sent to South Carolina to spend the summer with his Aunt and Uncle while his mother has another baby. There's clues that Will's father has left the family, but he hasn't excepted it and that's another reason why Will has been sent away - his mother is grieving.

The South Carolina Will is sent to is that modern American southern "paradise" so often seen in movies today like Steel Magnolias and The Prince of Tides. Will's aunt (Melanie Griffith) is kind and friendly and helps the lonely boy understand what's happening to his family. Her husband (Don Johnson) owns a shrimp boat and while he is at first a little unsure about what to do with Will, he quickly warms to the boy and takes him under his wing.

However, the two adults are obviously estranged, and sometimes Will's Uncle doesn't sleep at home. There's also an undercurrent of an unspoken tragedy that has happened to this couple, and it is the reason they walk on eggshells around one another.

Will finds a lonely neighbor girl, Billie, (Thora Birch) who is desperate for a friend. They also have a missing father in common.





This is a movie about real people, friendship, and slow, summer days exploring the South Carolina marsh. It is a gorgeous film, with understated, beautiful performances. The writer/director is Mary Agnes Donoghue, who got this chance to make a film after writing the huge hit Beaches. However, there is little of that film's maudlin and manipulative melodrama in Paradise.

Johnson and Griffith are absolutely perfect in this film. Both have been not-so-good in the past, but they are utterly believable as an estranged couple who are trying desperately to love one another again. Obviously, their real-life relationship must have something to do with that.



Nowadays it might be hard to remember that both Elijah Wood and Thora Birch started out as child actors. In this film, two 8 year olds are the leads - Griffith and Johnson are actually secondary characters. Their slow meandering into best friends is both nostalgic and beautiful to behold. As they are both pre-adolescents, there is no sexual tension or romantic complications that get in the way of their friendship. What's amazing is how absolutely beautiful and real these two kids come off on screen - not at all "child-actor" like. There's a scene that takes place on a dock by the marsh where the two children swim that is perhaps one of my all-time favorites: Will and Billie are sitting with their legs dangling over the edge, chatting, wet from swimming...Billie shyly asks Will who his best friend is - the look on her face when she gets the answer (it's her) is miraculous, as she shyly grins and says "I thought so." It's no wonder that both kids have become successful actors as adults.

No movie is perfectly satisfying without a great ending. Paradise has one. No explosions, no grand reveals, just some true, honest emotion between Johnson and Griffith once Will has gone back to his mother. I won't give it away except to say that seeing two damaged people reaching for one another through the veil of tragedy and forgiveness is one of the most moving moments I've ever had watching a film.

As far as I know, Donoghue has never directed another film...probably because this one made no money. It's a shame, she has a real talent that I'd love to see used again.

Great film, and one you can watch with your kids, too.