Paradise Road

Director/Writer:	Bruce Beresford
Director of Photography:	Peter James
Editor:	Timothy Wellburn
Production Designer:	Herbert Pinter
Producers:	Sue Milliken and Greg Coote
	Fox Searchlight; R; 110 minutes
Release:	4/97
Cast:	Glenn Close, Pauline Collins, Frances McDormand, Julianna Margulies, Jennifer Ehle and Elizabeth Spriggs

Paradise Road

Fox Searchlight

Paradise Road had the potential to be a powerful story of women pulling together in the face of unspeakable adversity. Instead, the film became a disconnected, overwrought World War II drama. When the Japanese occupy Sing-
apore, the European, Australian and American women flee, but their ship is bombed and the Japanese herd the survivors into Sumatran prison camps. The women endure brutal torture. Prisoner Adrienne Pargiter (Close) manages to keep her head held high and establishes an all-female vocal orchestra at the camp. The music briefly softens the vicious guards, but seeing them soak in the music as if they are at a concert hall is utterly unbelievable. McDormand as a German doctor who becomes camp physician is stiff, and her accent exaggerated. Definitely not an Oscar-worthy performance.

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