Change Your Image
steve-wartik
Reviews
Paradise Recovered (2010)
Fine film about faith
Here's a piece of work that really gets at the heart of what it means to have faith. In whom do you place your faith? A supreme being? A book? A church? A minister? This film is an intelligent, well-told and well-acted dramatization of a young woman's struggle to go against what she has been told and think for herself. If you have lived in a small American town you have encountered the kinds of people this film depicts; you will recognize both their sincerity and their cruelty. And maybe you will think about how some people wield power, and how others can go through life without ever questioning their submission.
One tangential remark: there's a lot of discussion about how the film is a modern-day retelling of the Good Samaritan parable. It isn't really. Google that parable, read the details about what the story meant in Jesus' time, and you'll see why. But the dissimilarity doesn't detract from this film.