Paradies, Brooklyn

Decent work, but most of this is very safe, tried and tested material.

Tom Conti and Miki Manojlovic both do a good job but they can pretty much sleepwalk through this movie, so little is required of them. I really expected Paskaljevic, who's done much better work both before and after this movie, to pick more challenging material then this familiar and overused "coming to America, starting new life, oh it's tough but we'll try to make it after all" stuff for his American debut.

At the end of the day, the only thing that stands out is Sergej Trifunovic in his first performance on film, playing Bajo's (Miki Manojlovic) older son. Him and Bajo get some memorable exchanges. I was so glad that they made Trifunovic's character to be unscrupulous and oily, who in spite of, or rather because of that turns out to be the only one who succeeds in the new country. In a lesser Hollywood movie, I'm sure that stubborn old Bajo would in the end be the one enjoying American good life and his unmoral son would be getting what's coming to him.

The magic realism intent of the finale is spoilt by poor optical work, and in general the movie is a catalogue of good ideas indifferently executed, or undermined by an affinity for hammy acting, boisterous comedy (the bantering between Conti and Manojlovic gets tiresome quite early on), and a disappointingly straightforward style - the whole thing looks overwhelmed by compromise. It comes close to so many things though - potentially acting as a kaleidoscope on the complex possibilities of America and the vast cultural compromise (in parts both sweeping and subtle) that's required of the immigrant: the eldest son effortlessly becomes an entrepreneur (portrayed with a cold-lipped hard-edge to him that can't help but distance us); Conti achieves the thinnest illusion of success; Manojlovic remains in the past, defiantly clutching his rooster (typical of his experience in the New World, when he obtains an egg in order to provide the rooster a chicken, it hatches into another rooster) and mourning his son who died in crossing from Mexico; others find a self-deluding equilibrium between past and present; but the ultimate arrival-point of old Granny shows all steps are possible. It's a great theme and a great title, worthy of a film of astonishing range and potency, but that's not achieved here - maybe the logistical challenge of making this all coalesce was just too ambitious for a director who's himself a stranger to America.