3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Paradise Highway

2022, Anna Gutto (Home for Christmas) -- download

This is one of those movies that has me wondering how it got made. The director, and writer, Anna Gutto, is more known for being a playwright, with some acclaim in her native Norway. The movie itself is a co-production of America, Germany and Switzerland. Something about it said, "There is a story here, behind the production" but the Internet has been no help. And unfortunately, its a rather bland Straight To movie, with only some minorly interesting bits, but fit perfectly into my Saturday Morning Waking Up movie watching routine. Its not Thriller nor Action enough to warrant a lot of attention in North America, nor does it smack of passion project. So, either we have a failure of intent, or a decent example of the working-through-it aspect of creating films that I generally support, i.e. it was made to make a movie, gaining further skill, further introducing the director to American audiences, and proving that she and her team have serviceable enough skills to do other things in the business.

Sally (an almost unrecognizable Juliette Binoche, Godzilla) is a trucker, doing illicit smuggling on behalf of a gang her convict brother Dennis (Frank Grillo, Boss Level) is beholden to. That is, until the cargo she is smuggling turns out to be a young girl heading in just the horrible direction you expect. She is forced to make the right choice, and goes on the run with the girl. Meanwhile retired FBI Agent Gerick (Morgan Freeman, Oblivion) is helping greenhorn Agent Sterling (Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order) figure out what is going on, to disassemble the human trafficking ring. Sally and the girl, along with her network of equally gritty women truckers, are trying to hide out long enough to figure out how to do right by the traffickers, and save her brother and the girl's life.

You can see a decent melodrama trying to claw its way out of this movie but it continually waffles between hard bitten human drama, without much real bite, and typical D-grade crime thriller. Binoche plays Sally admirably, with them shoe-horning in her as being from Quebec, to explain the accent sneaking through on occasion. Meanwhile, Freeman is just his typical aging cop role, spending much of the time swearing or looking at the ground contemplatively, as if the dust will show the clues he needs to find Sally. Grillo is just Grillo, which should tell you everything you need about his character. Nothing really unexpected happens, nor is it melodramatic enough to be impactful or satisfying.