By Diablo Cody is quite the opinion splitting screenwriter. Her fast paced, biting, and pop culture infused dialogues have been used as a deterrent in the past to keep most folks away from her work. However what those folks don’t realize is underneath that layer of heavy dialogue, there is a creamy nougat center of fine character work. With Cody’s directorial debut, Paradise, a major concern of the film is whether or not that strong character work is discernible beneath Cody’s sometimes cumbersome dialogue exchanges.
Should you book two tickets to Paradise? Or is Diablo Cody’s slice of heaven too sweet?
Paradise
Director: Diablo Cody
Release Date: October 18, 2013 (in theaters and VOD)
Rating: PG-13
Paradise follows Lamb Mannerheim (Julianne Hough) after a plane crash left her badly burned and at loss of belief. As she questions her faith in God, she leaves her small, highly conservative town (a town against wearing shorts and glitter) in favor of a raunchy romp through Vegas so she could start acting out on all the sinful desires her town has kept her from. During her crazy Vegas period, she meets William the Bartender (Russell Brand) and Loray the Singer (Octavia Spencer) who try to show her how to really experience Vegas.
With the synopsis it’s unfortunately apparent that this plot and overall theme has been done to death already. We’ve seen plenty of awkward, small town girls go through wild journeys of discovery, and they all end the same way: small town girl realizing her fondness of that small town or some king of blend of the small town/big city sensibilities. Paradise at least tries to be different, and that’s because Cody’s scriptwork slightly alleviates the problems that can be found in this type of story. Through character naming conventions (“Lamb” is set up for the proverbial slaughter) or story points, you can tell there was an attempt at elevation of the material to something resembling a slight parody or satire. Even if those small changes go unnoticed, Paradise works as a charming little debut. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to work pretty hard to get there.
While the cast is endearing enough (Julianne Hough completely owns her adorableness), it’s hard to relate or, at the very least, understand the character’s plights when everything they’re saying is cluttered. As noted earlier, Cody’s trademark is her heavily laced dialogue. In the worst cases, a character could take an entire diatribe to explain why some milk was spilled while referencing Harvey Milk in some way, but in her better work, a small knowing joke is a telling reveal of a grander issue. In Paradise, however, most of the dialogue is used to mask the film as something far smarter than it actually purports to be. It’s not enough to act like your film is distinguishing itself from typical tropes of your genre just because you explicitly point out how ridiculous it is. Or even if you’re attempting to ridicule them at all.
For a more egregious example, when Loray (Spencer) finally confronts Lamb about one of the glaring problems of the screenplay, it’s use of the “magical negro” trope (a trope in which a seemingly knowledgeable and wise Black man helps a White man pursue his goal), Loray explicitly mentions the trope, cites a few examples, and the subject is completely dropped with Lamb stating they were helping each other. I’ll give the film some credit for making Loray an intelligent person (she’s in college and trying to become a filmmaker) who never tries to harm Lamb through malice or negligence, but it’s not enough to forgive the abuse of the trope by simply letting the audience you have an awareness of it.
Although there is a bit of roughness to the overall plot, a lot of credit has to be given to Lamb’s independent growth. Although she’s essentially chaperoned through Vegas with two slight caricatures, she grows on her own (and makes her own decisions on which “sins” to commit), with very little guidance (although there’s one unfortunate heavy handed speech). While she unfortunately needs a man to tell her she’s beautiful, she eventually discovers on her own that she’s a broken character and decides to take the first steps toward fixing herself on her own. Lamb’s autonomy is the reason anyone will want to stick through Paradise.
While some of the speeches can get a bit too heavy handed or “on the nose” at times, Paradise is a nice first time out for Diablo Cody. I didn’t have any problems with the visuals (and found the scribbling “sins” to be cute), it was well cast, and none of it seemed too go on for too long. And while most of the dialogue goes too far, there are a few one-liners and jokes that’ll still make you chuckle.
Diablo Cody‘s Paradise definitely isn’t a paradise for everyone. But for those who like watching adorable people do adorable things adorably, this is your little piece of it.