Paradise Road (1997)

Genre: Historical / Drama

Directed by: Bruce Beresford

Cast: Glenn Close, Frances McDormand, Pauline Collins

Running time: 122 minutes

Based on true events, Paradise Road tells the story of a group of women who are made prisoner in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. To better survive the daily hardships of their precarious situation, they decide to create a vocal orchestra and perform music that will garner them more and more attention.

With a loaded cast and a compelling story to tell, Paradise Road is a very good movie. As you can imagine, as the story takes place in an internment camp during a war, some scenes can be hard to take. The filmmakers did not shy away from the hard realities of it, all the while not going overboard with it. This is not a film about blood and death, but one about resilience and survival.

I must admit that having well-known actresses perform foreign accents can sometimes take you away from the story for a bit. It was really the case here with Frances McDormand playing an Irish doctor. Once I got over the initial shock, I could still appreciate her performance, as well as everyone else’s; not a bad one to mention. Overall, this was a very good movie.

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