Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Paradise Highway Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 4, 2022

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).

Gutto, who makes her feature film debut in both the writer's and director's chair(s), offers some understandable outrage about the trafficking of prepubescent girls in particular in some of the supplements on this disc, and in a way it's to her credit that she tends not to exploit the more prurient aspects of that situation in this film, though she perhaps clutters it up with too much melodramatic sidebar material, when it's the central relationship between Sally and Leila that unabashedly drives the emotional content of the film. There's also a potentially unbelievable element running through this supposedly "ripped from the headlines" account in a number of areas, including the fact that the pretty tough seeming Grillo regularly gets his butt kicked in stir, as well as the whole FBI subplot, which of course is constructed so that the Freeman character isn't bound by the rules and regulations of the actual FBI. And the whole kind of bantering "let me show you how to do it" interplay between Gerick and Sterling seems tonally at odds with the more serious side of things that Gutto seems to want to emphasize.

I frankly feel Paradise Highway may have resonated more strongly without any of the backstory involving Sally and Dennis, and had Sally simply stumbled upon a human trafficking situation and been forced into helping in some way, things may have ironically had a more visceral quality than adding in the whole "double threat" of Sally and Leila being chased both by villains and ostensible heroes (i.e., the FBI and quasi-FBI). Some of the writing is forced and not especially believable, including a bunch of clearly expository stuff at the opening where Sally is listening to a bunch of her female truck driver cohorts on a CB, all of whom helpfully fill in some of those aforementioned backstory blanks.

All of this said, the film does offer Binoche an unusual characterization, and while large swaths of this film resort to having Sally screaming into her cellphone, her scenes with Finley in particular are quite well done. Paradise Highway doesn't seem to have gotten the kind of traction that tends to result in recognition during awards season, but I frankly wouldn't be surprised if Hala Finley manages to score a Best Supporting Actress nomination in next year's Academy Awards derby, as she is arguably the best thing about the film, which is pretty remarkable when you consider the force of nature that is the elegant, beautiful, poised and patrician Juliette Binoche.

Paradise Highway Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Paradise Highway Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director's Commentary


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 5:11) feature optional commentary by Anna Gutto.


• Making Paradise Highway (HD: 22:43) is an above average EPK with lots of interviews with the principal cast and crew, behind the scenes footage and snippets from the completed film.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:44)

Additionally a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Paradise Highway Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.