Dusky Paradise (2016) User Reviews

Haunting but...

[ronaldulrici · 5/10 · 12 October 2020]

What a thought-provoking little movie. It is slow and boring for the most part, but the imagery, the scenery and the mood are haunting. Slow and boring are okay with me - I feel cheated for other reasons.

So many movies end today without answering many questions, Novels are the same. As an avid movie watcher and reader, I think that the producers, directors and authors owe us so much more. After all, we are their customers. We invest hours of consuming their products. Can't we have an old fashioned Hollywood ending once in awhile? Can't we have resolutions to the issues that they throw at us?

I'm sure that there is some "code of cool" that says it is okay to leave your audience hanging. I don't buy it.

Take nothing for granted - appreciate the gift of life and relationships.

[sjshrestha · 7/10 · 22 January 2021]

This sleeper gem of a movie leaves questions rather than a pretty bow at the end, which can be a little frustrating for some folks. Perhaps that feeling is a little justified because the movie takes the viewer almost to the end, by building up some expectations. But, that's where the usually cliched conclusion drifts off. For this viewer, I feel that the twist in the narrative is some sort of revelation for the principle character who has going through trauma, without realizing it and not really lived "awake and aware." The people that he encounters are almost his opposite - full of life and possibilities, who care for him - but are still human and vulnerable in their own ways. The conclusion of the movie is - for Jacob - a an awakening and experience of an emotional connection to himself and with life.

Promising but half-baked

[johnpmoseley · 5/10 · 5 October 2021]

Main character Jacob comes to live in his parents' palatial house on - probably - the Spanish coast, a month - or is it two months? - after they die in 'an accident.' Entirely resistant to social contact, he is forced into it when he locks himself out and the neighbour makes him stay for dinner in exchange for the spare keys. Over dinner, Jacob expresses baffled disinterest in pretty much anything, up to and including Van Gogh's Sunflowers. The older man tells him about how he met his wife and Jacob can't see the point of that story either.

We are to understand we are witnessing a change in Jacob since he then goes to a commercial art gallery and asks to look at something like Van Gogh's Sunflowers, then falls for the young gallerist, Zoe. But what has brought on this awakening? Is the neighbour's mild defence really the first time anyone's ever suggested to Jacob that there might be some point, any at all, to art or love?

Well, maybe. On one of their sweet but sexless dates, Zoe asks about his parents and he says he's never spent much time with them. Why? He says he'll get back to her on this but never does.

We can guess at what's been lacking up to a point, but motivation still feels weak and the missing pieces less like writerly economy and intrigue than shirking the story details. Why did the parents abandon the son to his near autistic numbness and go live in a house and country he never once visited? A little more discussion of this would have flowed naturally enough, particularly from the neighbour, who clearly knew the parents (well enough to talk about their musical tastes) and seems keen to cure the son of his anomie. The neighbour, similarly, is unwillingly separated from his wife, but, despite being a generally voluble sort, never says why.

Nice to see one can make such a good-looking film for peanuts, but can you do a better script next time? And to see how to really do elegant simplicity, watch Old Joy or Being There.

Interesting characters, but lacking strong story structure.

[M85ALIVE · 3/10 · 7 June 2019]

I really found the character's of Jacob and Mataya pretty darn interesting, they both seem to have a deep and moving past, both emotionally and psychologically. The writer seems to really have a sense of what a character for the screen needs to be.

Wow, for 20k this film looks great, the production value is very well done. Pretty much all the acting was pretty impressive.

For me though there were issues with the writing that let me down with the film

1. Jacobs goal: It's not clear what specifically he wants, is it to get more in touch with his feelings, form a bond with Zoe, form a relationship with her, experience what it's like to love someone? it's too vague and unfocused.

Additionally these are all internal things, and this is the major issue with the film for me. Whilst I can witness Jacob going through the journey of whatever goal he is pursuing I cannot experience it with him, that is soooooo essential in any film and is missing here. His goal is experienced from within so I the viewer can't experience it with him, that's what films are, an experience through the lens of the protagonist, but unfortunately not here.

That's also the reason there is pretty much no conflict in the film, an internal goal renders it that way, any and all opposition will only come from himself and within, we can't witness that in a visceral way.

2. The story structure: Whilst there is a wealth of interesting context about the characters and events that happened to them, its all delivered in a frankly lazy, unengaging, unexciting way...way too much talking heads on chairs spouting context to one another over and over, scene to scene....it gets really boring, that's because there's no structure in the script to deliver it in an engaging way, conflict as I mentioned being one of a few that could of been used. Also there are bits of context that feel out of place, like at the 55 min mark where Jacob tells Zoe he never spent time with or knew his parents and he doesn't know why. That really feels like a piece of context that belongs in the setup, because it sets up the type of goal that Jacob needs to achieve, it's not a payoff piece of context but it exists in or around the payoff of the film.

To me Mataya was a slightly more interesting character than Jacob and i think should of been the protagonist, he has immediate stakes, they feel right and in the moment for the film thats playing. Yes Jacob will lose Zoe, but really he's just met her. But with Mataya this woman is long standing and means everything to him...more weight to the stakes.

Not sure if this is a plot hole but near the end Jacob runs after the taxi Zoe is in....why didn't he drive his jeep after her? We see the jeep in the preceding scene (1:00:16) it's right there, why didn't he drive it to get her?

Again I loved the characters but was so let down by the execution of the script and found it unengaging because of that. Great context if it had of been delivered in an engaging way.