PARADISE ROAD Movie Review

1997 Bruce Beresford

Bruce Beresford's ensemble film lacks the emotional power of Breaker Morant, but it is still an excellent examination of a little known episode of World War II—little known in America, at least. The fact-based story of a multinational group of women taken prisoner by the Japanese resorts to a few cliches and formulaic conflicts, but uniformly strong performances make up for the flaws.

A glittering crowd of Brits, Aussies, and Yanks is gathered at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore on the night of February 10, 1942. The men pooh-pooh the notion that the approaching Japanese army will actually enter the city. When artillery shells land outside, they reconsider their dismissive racial stereotypes and evacuate the women and children on a British warship Several dozen women then embark on a halting journey that takes them on different paths to an internment camp on Sumatra.

Mrs. Pargiter (Glenn Close) becomes an unofficial leader, though it takes the quiet persistence of Mrs. Drummond (Pauline Collins) to force Mrs. Pargiter into the foreground. Topsy Merritt (Julianna Margulies) is a sharp-tongued American. Susan McCarthy (Cate Blanchett) is a nurse. Mrs. Leighton-Jones (Jennifer Ehle) is the looker in the bunch. Mrs. Verstak (Frances McDormand) is a German doctor, or claims to be. Nothing suits Mrs. Tippler (Pamela Rabe) and she happily takes on the duties of camp troublemaker. Col. Hiroyo (Sab Shimono) is in charge of the camp, but he defers to the sadistic Capt. Tanaka (Stan Egi) of the secret police.

To keep the women's morale up, Mrs. Pargiter and Mrs. Drummond recruit a vocal orchestra despite strict rules against various forms of writing and assembly. Though that activity is at the center of the film, other incidents involve the women individually. Of those, the most important concerns Mrs. Pargiter and a guard (Clyde Kusatsu) and appears to have been borrowed directly from Agnes Newton Keith's Three Came Home. In both her book and the film based on it, the incident is described and resolved in much greater detail.

Overall, writer-director Beresford divides the focus fairly evenly among his cast. Given the film's slightly episodic structure, some moments are more successful than others. The best involve the vocal work—particularly the Dvorak—and the poems of Margaret Dryburgh, the real woman upon whom Mrs. Drummond is based. Pauline Collins, known best as Shirley Valentine and for her role on Upstairs, Downstairs, makes her one of the most memorable characters in the ensemble, and Frances McDormand's wry skeptic is the straw that stirs the drink. Though she gets top billing, Glenn Close does not do a star turn. Her work is pitched on the same emotional level as the rest. Also, these actresses allow themselves to be shown in realistically unflattering conditions. The film is probably the least glamorous work many of them will ever do.

Their accents are also realistic, and some long passages are hard for Americans to decipher. That goes for some of the colloquial English and Australian language, too. To get the joke in one early scene, you need to know that “spend a penny” means “go to the bathroom.” That decorous usage is indicative of the film's carefully crafted approach to a brutal, ugly subject.

Cast: Glenn Close (Adrienne Pargiter), Frances McDormand (Dr. Verstak), Julianna Margulies (Topsy Merritt), Pauline Collins (Margaret Drummond), Jennifer Ehle (Rosemary Leighton-Jones), Elizabeth Spriggs (Mrs. Roberts), Tessa Humphries (Celia Roberts), Sab Shimono (Col. Hiroyo), Cate Blanchett (Susan McCarthy), Wendy Hughes (Mrs. Dickson), Johanna Ter Steege (Sister Wilhelmina), Pamela Rabe (Mrs. Tippler), Clyde Kusatsu (Snake), Stan Egi (Capt. Tanaka), Susie Porter (Oggi), Lisa Hensley (Bett), Pennie Hackforth-Jones (Mrs. Pike), Pauline Chan (Wing), Kitty Clinget (Sister Anna), Alwine Seinen (Millie); Written by: Bruce Beresford, David Giles, Martin Meader; Cinematography by: Peter James; Music by: Margareth Dryburgh, Ross Edwards. Producer: Sue Milliken, Greg Coote, Graham Burke, Village Roadshow Pictures; released by Fox Searchlight. MPAA Rating: R. Running Time: 115 minutes. Format: VHS, Closed Caption.