6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A truck driver has been forced to smuggle illicit cargo to save her brother from a deadly prison gang. With FBI operatives hot on her trail, Sally's conscience is challenged when the final package turns out to be a teenage girl.
Starring: Cameron Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Juliette Binoche, Frank Grillo, Christiane SeidelThriller | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Juliette Binoche is probably inarguably (hey, some people want to argue about anything) one of the more elegant actresses of her generation, beautiful, poised and in some ineffable way patrician as only a French woman can be, which means some viewers are going to have to take a veritable handful of "red pills" to accept her as a hardscrabble truck driver plying the back roads of the rural United States in Paradise Highway. Unfortunately, that disconnect between performer and role may be the least of Paradise Highway's issues, though as with so many journeys that end up in either literal or figurative hell, there are good intentions aplenty in this story about human trafficking. Now an actress of Binoche's range and facility can make playing a hardscrabble truck driver at least somewhat believable, but what is one to make of the fact that her sibling in this film is played by the not exactly elegant and/or even French (or to properly utilize this film's conceit, French Canadian) Frank Grillo? There's some passing lip service to this odd aspect in Anna Gutto's screenplay, but as a making of featurette included on this disc as a supplement kind of alludes to, it sounds like Binoche was a fairly late casting decision that happened somewhat serendipitously, and that may have prevented a more artful handling of what might be termed "cross cultural" undercurrents in this somewhat perplexing enterprise. One way or the other, Binoche portrays Sally, whose brother Dennis (Grillo) is in stir, and who has been helping him stay safe in confinement by doing a little drug running for him on the side. Drug running quickly turns into transporting a minor across state lines for illicit purposes, which is when the film introduces a young girl named Leila (an impressive Hala Finley) who due to the vagaries of fate and a perhaps ill advisedly easy to reach shotgun thrusts the girl and Sally together on a mad dash together to evade both a cabal of would be "pimp entrepreneurs" as well as a wizened ex-FBI agent named Gerick (Morgan Freeman) and his new to the ranks acolyte Finley Sterling (Cameron Monaghan).
Paradise Highway is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Both the IMDb and the making of featurette included on the disc as a supplemental feature disclose the Arri Alexa was utilized for the shoot, and without any authoritative information to the contrary, I'm defaulting to a 2K DI. This is another Lionsgate release that has some noticeable banding (so noticeable it showed up the screencapture software, which is not always the case), at least during the logo mastheads, but also in some of the dusky material where light sources vary, but otherwise there are no egregious compression issues other than some dustings of noise in the darkest moments (there are some good examples in the scene where Leila attempts to protect Sally late in the film). The cinematography by John Christian Rosenlund is often quite striking, and as can perhaps be made out in some of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, there seems to have been an intentional stylistic decision to push brightness and minimize contrast in some scenes featuring Gerick in particular, choices which give this "dark" material an unexpectedly sunny, summery and slightly hazy feel at times. Detail levels are generally commendable throughout the presentation.
Paradise Highway features an intermittently immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. A lot of the "on the road" material features good, consistent engagement of the surround channels in terms of everything from "inside the truck" ambient effects to outdoor aspects. There's at least one good example of a startle effect involving that aforementioned shotgun, and the low end occasionally gets brief bursts of energy from things like roaring semi engines. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.
Anna Gutto makes a forceful debut with this film, and if everything doesn't quite work, there's a solid mastery of technique that augurs well for Gutto's future. Some may find it a bit hard to believe Binoche as a foul mouthed trucker, but she commits to the role fully, and Finley is quite remarkable as a deeply traumatized young girl. Some of the surrounding material here is far fetched, to say the least, but this is a remarkably low key look at a potentially very "triggering" subject in terms of the actual human trafficking element, though Gutto probably gums up the works somewhat by making that surrounding material so melodramatic and hyperbolic at times. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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