Paradise, directed by Boris Kunz, is a German action sci-fi thriller film, released on Netflix on July 27, 2023. It is produced by Simon Amberger, Korbinian Dufter, Rafael Parente and the screenplay is written by Peter Kocyla, Boris Kunz and Simon Amberger. It has a runtime of about 1 hour and 56 minutes.
The cast of the film includes Kostja Ullmann, Iris Berben, Marlene Tanczik, Corinna Kirchhoff, Lisa-Marie Koroll, Alina Levshin, Lorna Ishema, Numan Acar and Lisa Loven Kongsli. While the cinematography is done by Christian Stangassinger.
Paradise Review
The film starts off with an ad for the company AEON that can make anyone get young or buy more ‘time’ from another person, who is a match. The ad cuts to Max, an employee of the company persuading an 18-year-old boy to give fifteen years of his ‘time’ and get about 700,000 euros in compensation. Apparently, the boy comes from an immigrant family and by donating, he can ensure the legal right to live in the country and have enough money to pay debts and live.
From the get-go, you get a sense that what the company is doing is definitely revolutionary but the beneficiaries are only the rich people and the lower classes mostly get taken advantage of for it. Max is still one of the nice managers who try to get his donors compensated fairly, otherwise, many of his colleagues trick and leave them empty-handed and old. Meanwhile, an extremist group called Adam is against it all and even goes to the lengths of killing people who go through rejuvenation aka become young again.
When dealing with his donors, Max presents the idea that they are doing something good but when the same thing falls on him, he loses his mind. Soon after getting an award at work, his house gets burnt down to ashes mysteriously. His wife had put down her lifetime as collateral for the loan on the house and considering that the fire was caused due to their neglect, they needed to pay up to 2.5 million or give at least 38-40 years of their lives. And with all the money burnt, they are left with the latter option only.
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Thus when Elena suddenly turns 40 years older and Max remains the same age, their marriage also starts to dwindle. It enrages him and reaches out to the CEO of the company, Sophie Theissen for help, only to find out that she is the one that benefitted from her wife’s ‘time’ donation. This sends him down a rabbit hole, questioning if everything that happened was deliberately planned and if he can reverse the process again.
While it’s quite an interesting plot, it doesn’t hold the momentum till the end. At first, Max is insanely obsessed to reverse the operation and is willing to abduct Sophie to get the procedure done illegally. While Elena has kind of made peace with what has happened and living out her remaining days. But as they go on a chasing journey from one country to another, committing various crimes, the hope to become young again gets the best of her and Max becomes apprehensive of the idea.
That’s the point where the plot loses its charm. It’s quite thrilling at first, that a man in love is willing to sacrifice his whole life to give his wife what was hers. But then the story seems all over the place and even characters are not sure of their choices anymore. Personal desires take over their own relationship but the way the story ended just feels unsatisfactory.
Overall, it’s a good concept that highlights realistic subjects like classism and how ageing affects relationships and the human psyche. But don’t expect much from the movie as it loses its own vision. Despite some good performances from the actors, the story lets you down from the mid way.
Rating: 3/5
Paradise is currently streaming on Netflix.
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