Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Paradise Blu-ray Movie Review

. . . Lost

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 20, 2013

Screenwriter Diablo Cody likes to push comic situations to the edge, so that they risk crossing the boundary of what's funny. A self-confessed outsider, she creates heroines whose circumstances place them far enough outside "normal" to justify their acerbic commentary on everyone and everything—except, usually, themselves. The comedy often comes when they bump up against their own limitations. Pregnancy and precocious verbal dexterity separated the teenage heroine of Juno, and multiple personality disorder served the same function in the HBO series United States of Tara. In Cody's script for Young Adult, a combination of arrested development and stalker-ish romantic obsession threatened to make the heroine thoroughly unappealing, but the film succeeded against all odds because of precision direction from Jason Reitman and a dazzling high-wire performance by Charlize Theron.

Paradise is Cody's first effort at directing her own feature script, having gained experience directing episodes of Tara, but she has written a story that would give even a seasoned film director pause. Her heroine is a teenage girl who has suffered third degree burns over half her body in a plane crash and now, after a year of painful skin grafts and surgery, is just able to return to a world that she sees through completely different eyes. Cody has said that she wanted to explore how people cope with unimaginable trauma, but as Robert Redford demonstrated in Ordinary People, it's possible to do so without creating a ghoulish display of effects make-up to turn the main character's skin into what she herself describes as "turkey bacon". The injury and the practical necessities of treating it become a distraction. As the heroine says in addressing her church:

Look, I know that you're all pretending that you're here for my testimony about how, through the grace of God, I recovered from my near-fatal accident. But let's be honest. You're all just hoping to hear the gory details about the crash. Like, for instance, how could I smell myself burning . . . .

The same "freak show" factor ends up overwhelming Paradise, and Cody can't immunize against it by inoculating the film with a few lines of dialogue.

Having been raised in a fundamentalist Christian community in Montana, Lamb Mannerheim (Julianne Hough, Safe Haven and the remake of Footloose) loses her faith after the plane crash that leaves her badly burned. She spends a year of painful recovery, during which she receives a lucrative settlement from the airplane's manufacturer, which she is expected to donate to her church. But Lamb scandalizes both her parents (Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman) and her entire congregation by announcing that she no longer believes in God, then setting off to experience the world that has been denied her in a life of home schooling, prayer and religious observance. Naturally, Lamb heads for the one place where she imagines she can maximize her experience of sin with the greatest efficiency: Las Vegas.

By chance, Lamb acquires two knowledgeable guides to Vegas in the person of a cynical lounge singer, Loray (Octavia Spencer), and Loray's best friend, a horndog bartender named William (Russell Brand, uncharacteristically restrained). Having thought they'd seen it all in what Loray calls "the People's Republic of Bad Choices", William and Loray are fascinated by Lamb, who is anything but the stereotypical naif. Cody's script indulges in easy (much too easy) jokes at the expense of the religious community, but Lamb's upbringing has imbued her with a sense of self-worth that carries her through a whirlwind of bright lights, alcohol and callous treatment that might have left a weaker soul in a state of collapse. It's undoubtedly the same strength of character that got her through the slow recovery from her injuries and will ultimately see her through to the other side of this experience. "How do I have fun?" ask Lamb at one point, as the realization dawns that all these "forbidden" activities don't add up to much.

Cody's dilemma is that, having invented this devastating injury as challenge for Lamb, she's now stuck with its consequences, which serve as a constant distraction from the life lessons she obviously wants to explore. Lamb must routinely pop powerful pain pills—refilling the prescription becomes a plot point—that make her alcohol consumption a serious hazard. The sole Vegas attraction that she finds "fun" (joyfully so) is an aerial ride suspended over a mall, for which she has to lie about her condition to the operator and that causes her skins grafts to bleed. Despite William's urging, she refuses to seek medical attention. In what is undoubtedly the film's most ill-considered scene, Lamb attempts to complete her sinful education by offering herself to a man who wasn't expecting any such thing and would have turned down this obviously ill-prepared teen under any circumstances. Lamb, of course, immediately concludes that he's repulsed by her ravaged skin, while giving the audience an exceptionally clear view of her horribly scarred chest (a decision that Cody confirms in her commentary was carefully considered and deliberately made). The purpose of the encounter? I'm still not sure.

Indeed, the entire purpose of Lamb's "journey" (to use the hackneyed expression beloved by actors and screenwriters) remains hazy. She experiences some sort of revelation, courtesy of an encounter with a hooker named Amber (Kathleen Rose Perkins), and it has something to do with love and charity, but Cody hasn't found a way to express Lamb's new understanding beyond catchphrases. Nor does Cody herself seem to have gained any better understanding of her own heroine. When she sends Lamb back to her parents for a token reconciliation, Cody still takes the same cheap shots at their values. "We're not stuffy, honey", says her father. "We're open to hearing about your new beliefs. As long they're still very conservative." Leaving Lamb to her future, we're supposed to believe she found what she was after, but only God and Cody know what it is—and I'm not too sure about Cody.

Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

According to the commentary, Paradise was shot with the Arri Alexa. The cinematographer was Tim Suhrstedt, whose distinguished resume includes Little Miss Sunshine, several films for Mike Judge and the original Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Image/RLJ Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which was presumably sourced from digital files, is typical of discs created from sources originated on the Alexa: clean, noiseless and detailed, but with a smooth, almost film-like quality and no digital harshness. The range of colors is exceptional, encompassing both the more sober, earth-toned palette of Montana (actually, Louisiana) and the garish brightness and suggestive shadows of Las Vegas, with its constantly changing lights and attractions. Blacks and shadow detail are excellent, so that even the dark club scenes show everything you'd want to see.

Since this is Image, a BD-25 is only to be expected, but digital imagery can be more tightly compressed without risk of artifacts, and the average bitrate of 20.99 seems to have been sufficient to accommodate the 87-minute film.

Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paradise sports an unusually aggressive 5.1 soundtrack for a comedy, presented here in lossless DTS-HD MA, which announces its immersive presence right from the opening, when an image of cotton candy burns violently away to reveal Lamb Mannerheim emerging from the ocean. The Vegas scenes are full of club and casino noise, with aggressively pounding music and deep bass notes, either nearby or in the distance, depending on the setting. Various "subjective" sound effects are woven into the sonic texture to accompany Lamb's voiceover narration, and the score by Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman winds through the story, providing a comic counterpoint to the overcooked Vegas beat. The dialogue is always clear.

Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Writer/Director Diablo Cody: Cody confesses at the outset that she's never done a solo commentary before, and she does often lapse into silence, but there are informative observations along the way, particularly on the history of the script, her intentions, the casting process and various changes (including the decision, in editing, to add Lamb's voiceover narration).



• Behind the Scenes with . . . (1080p; 1.78:1): Various interviews about the story and the characters.
• Diablo Cody (4:45)
• Russell Brand (2:34)
• Julianne Hough (2:40)
• Octavia Spencer (5:01)



• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:23).



• Additional Trailers: At startup, the disc plays trailers for Goats, Last Love and The Numbers Station. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Paradise Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After the success of Juno, Cody was criticized and parodied for that film's distinctive idiom, which reflected the attitude of its young protagonist. But the language was just packaging. Cody's subsequent work has demonstrated stylistic flexibility, as she has explored different settings and other types of protagonists. Paradise suggests, however, that she may need the additional, contrary perspective of an independent director (or of directing someone else's script) to ensure that every aspect of her vision is thoroughly tested and expressed—and also to eliminate the things that don't work and distract from the real themes. Cody is a major talent, and people like Octavia Spencer's Loray (who reveals herself as a film school student) will someday write papers about her. They will be the ones to watch Paradise. Everyone else should pass.