Paradise
Starring Kostja Ullmann, Marlene Tanczik and Corinna Kirchhoff
Rated MA15+
4/5
Paradise is a compelling, very well-paced German science fiction thriller.
Max (Kostja Ullmann) is a top salesman for Aeon, a corporation that extracts years of life from donors and sells them to wealthy clients. When his wife Elena (Marlene Tanczik) must give up nearly forty years to pay a debt, Max forsakes the system and hatches a daring plan to reclaim her youth.
With a similar but much better-executed time-as-currency premise as In Time, Paradise’s engrossing narrative flows and escalates smoothly through its tonally very different three acts.
The first act features beautifully-understated tragedy, as Elena (now played by Corinna Kirchhoff) struggles to accept her suddenly-aged body and Max’s loyalty to Aeon crumbles. The second act is a disquieting kidnapping scheme, and the final act is a tense standoff reminiscent of the climactic siege in Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men.
Running through the film are Max and Elena’s evolving relationship, clever dialogue and an ever-worsening situation pushing good people to commit bad acts. A subplot between Kaya (Lorna Ishema) and Viktor (Numan Akar), two security personnel on Max and Elena’s tail, provides some levity, as Viktor takes a shine to a woman who is physically younger than him but objectively older.
Like After Yang from last year, Paradise’s future setting is all the more immersive through its subtle details, but the costuming, art direction and electronic score remind me of the cyberpunk video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
The old age make-up is not entirely convincing, and the film’s repeated use of pop songs feels slightly shallow (and their inclusion in intimate scenes brings back unpleasant memories of the 365 Days series).
A poignant, intelligent sci-fi thriller with heady ideas and a human pulse, Paradise is available for streaming on Netflix.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
