Paradise Highway (2022)

	Directed by: Anna Gutto	COUNTRY USA/Germany/ Switzerland GENRE Drama/Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Paradise Highway RUNNING TIME 115 minutes
	Produced by: Claudia Bluemhuber Georgia Bayliff Michael Leahy Anna Gutto
	Written by: Anna Gutto

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Sally	Juliette Binoche	½
Dennis	Frank Grillo	½
Gerick	Morgan Freeman
Leila	Hala Finley	½
FBI Special Agent Finley Sterling	Cameron Monaghan	½

Review

This feminist version of Convoy with a twist has got its bleeding heart a little too much in the right place. The writer and director is the American-based Norwegian Anna Gutto, who directed the wonderful mini-series Home for Christmas in 2019. Her ambition this time is to take a look behind the scenes of domestic human trafficking, focusing on the people behind the statistics. And while the idea is noble and the film has the outline of a good story, it soon becomes a somewhat too romanticized and platitudinous tale of unconventional motherly love, the good ol' freedom of the American road, and some fashionable female vengeance. What could have been true and real becomes factitious, even if the relationship between Juliette Binoche as the maverick truck driver and Hala Finley as the girl has a simple sweetness to it.