April 17–24, 1997

movie shorts

Paradise Road

Bruce Beresford has made some intelligent movies. But this one is more like Driving Miss Daisy than Breaker Morant: sappy, annoying and cliched out the wazoo (even if it is based on a true story). A group of women and children are leaving World War II-era Singapore when their boat is attacked by the ruthless Japanese. (Please. How many World War II movies have you seen that open with this nostalgic moment: a singer entertains an upper-crusty party as their imperial glow wanes?) When the boat goes down and the gals are taken prisoner on Sumatra, they keep their spirits up by starting a chorus, humming and practicing until they're so good that even their captors are impressed. You can see how this might have looked like a "women's story" (in the way that Daisy might have looked benevolent) and the performances of stock characters are generally strong: Glenn Close is the gutsy leader, Frances McDormand a German prisoner (her mannered accent must be a joke), Julianna Margulies a sharp-tongued American, Cate Blanchett a brave Australian nurse, and Wendy Hughes a kindly British missionary. One of the more alarming moments comes when the camp commander brutally murders a Chinesewoman (Pauline Chan): that she's the sacrifice for an audience of horrified white women is worth thinking about. The movie emphasizes the women's courage, at the dire expense of the Japanese, who seem to have stepped from a circa-1940s "evil extras" casting call.

—Cindy Fuchs