Boris Kunz’s movie fails to live up to its own fascinating premise LONDON: A few years ago, there was a flurry of Netflix sci-fi movies that, while varying in their overall quality, all boasted some unique and intriguing concepts. “Io”, “I Am Mother,” “Tau” and “Extinction” might have all had their faults, but they were nothing if not original. The same can definitely be said for “Paradise” — a German dystopian thriller that follows a couple, Max and Elena, who live in a near-future Berlin in which people can ‘sell’ years of their lives to a rich, elite population willing to pay mega bucks to stay young. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle When their apartment mysteriously burns down, the couple find themselves in inescapable debt, only to learn that Elena has put 40 years of her life down as collateral. After the debt is forcibly called in — and with Elena now aged into her sixties — Max comes up with a desperate plan to blackmail the CEO of the globe-spanning Aeon (which developed the transfer process) into returning her years. It"s actually a pretty gripping story idea, one that gives the opening act of “Paradise” a real sense of purposeful worldbuilding. There are some hints of intriguing social commentary too — society has split into those forced to sell their youth to the privileged elite desperate for more time to hold onto that luxury, while traditional ideas of age equating to experience are turned upside down. Sadly, “Paradise” pays these ideas little more than lip service, instead opting to send Max and Elena on a gritty (and occasionally entertaining) chase across Europe in a bid to find some way to reverse the process. Kostja Ullmann as Max and Corinna Kirchhoff as the prematurely aged Elena are entertaining enough, and co-writer/director Boris Kunz displays a keen eye for bleak, dystopian universe creation, but “Paradise” too-quickly devolves into predictable sci-fi fare, bypassing the moral and social dilemmas at the heart of its own premise and opting instead for a run-of-the-mill, ambiguous ending that doesn’t answer enough of its own questions.
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