[Movie Review] ‘Paradise Lost’ is incredibly boring

Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? No.

Should you watch this for free? No.

Secret ending? Thankfully, no.

Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)

“Paradise Lost” is a thriller that revolves around a hapless lover who finds that his beau is the daughter of a ruthless drug lord. It stars Josh Hutcherson (Nick Brady), Benecio del Toro (Pablo Escobar), Brady Corbet (Dylan Brady), and Claudia Traisac (Maria Escobar). It is rated PG-13.

“Paradise Lost” held a lot of promise, what with its ostensibly interesting premise. It drops the ball within the first 15 minutes, subjecting you to two torturous hours of dreary rambling, pointless drama, and flashbacks that tell you what you already know. I applaud the heroic efforts of Josh Hutcherson to carry this movie forward along with Benecio del Toro, but even their performances couldn’t save this film from its sleepy storytelling.

Highlights

I have to admit that his showing in the Hunger Games series hasn’t been impressive, but he really shows his acting chops in this movie. He takes us through his full range of emotions, and each one is subtle, believable, and authentic. This is even more amazing given that the plot does him absolutely no favours.

Letdowns

The story crawls forward at a snail’s pace. Due to the odd, non-chronological structure of the movie, the film treats momentous events as if they are a surprise, when you’ve been expecting it all along. It indulges itself in unnecessarily long scenes, irritatingly pretentious shots, and inexplicably awkward pauses. In short, it’s a 30-minute story that takes 2 hours to tell.

While Benecio del Toro and Josh Hutcherson provide admirable performances, the fact is that they’re acting in a strangely simplistic story that has no intellectually or literary merit. It’s a snoozefest. There’s no excitement or tension, and since it inches its way forward at its own sweet time, it doesn’t engage you in any way. It is just terribly boring.

Nick and Maria have an unbelievable relationship. It’s too perfect, so far past the point of being a cliched stereotype that you don’t even know what to make of it. It’s not convincing to have two people behave the way they do, and it’s really odd against the supposed drama of the rest of the film. How is such a flawless relationship possible?

Why is the movie even in English when such a huge portion of it is spent subtitling Spanish dialogue? Wouldn’t it have been better to just have everyone speak Spanish or English and dub it over? Using two languages doesn’t build authenticity, it just makes look like the producer was indecisive about which language to focus on and went with both. It’s weird and distracting.

I’ve never seen a film as boring and tedious as “Paradise Lost.” It wastes a wonderful chance with an intriguing premise, and the talents of a good cast to boot. It’s a horribly self-indulgent film that pleases no-one but its makers.