Mark Reviews Movies: PARADISE HILLS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 24, 2019

The world of Paradise Hills is one of privilege, social expectations, and economic exclusion. It's a terrible place for those without money or those who don't really care about it.

The story is set at an exclusive and seemingly utopian reform school for women who don't fit in with high society. They're subjected to an assortment of tests, both obvious and secret, while also apparently being brainwashed into thinking the "right" way.

Director Alice Waddington, along with the production design team, has created a beautifully strange locale for this movie, filled with lush gardens and ornate decorations—all of it a façade for something sinister. The screenplay by Brian DeLeeuw and Nacho Vigalondo plays out the slow uncovering of the mystery behind this school, with its security measures and puzzling technology. The plot's revelations and thematic concerns serve as a shallow counterpoint to the visual intricacies of the world Waddington has built.

The central character is Uma (Emma Roberts), who is meant to marry an entitled sociopath. She doesn't want to, so her mother and fiancé send her to the school, located on an island in the middle of the ocean, without warning.

There, she meets a few fellow agitators: Chloe (Danielle Macdonald), whose mother wants her to be more like her model sister, Yu (Awkwafina), who moved in with her rich and judgmental grandparents, and Amarna (Eiza González), a pop star who's tired of singing what the record label wants. The school is run by the Duchess (Milla Jovovich), who seems pleasant but has her own issues, which she happily takes out on her students.

The point, which is so on-the-nose that it barely needs explaining, has to do with the pressures women face to match society's outlook on them, as well as how a strident class system makes victims of just about everyone. Learning about the world itself, then, is much more intriguing than waiting for the story's suddenly strange shift into science-fiction. As for that world, it doesn't have much to offer, once one figures out the game being played.

Paradise Hills is an impressive work of production design, in which everything seems to have a place and serve a purpose—even if it's just decoration to cover up the truth. Meanwhile, the truth the movie's design is covering up is that there really isn't much to this story.

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