The Paradise Suite

As a Dutchman I was really stirred by this movie, made by a Dutch director Joost van Ginkel. It left me pretty speechless really. It is a very dramatic movie in a raw slow kind of way, but it felt very pure and true-to-nature all the way through, portraying the live of different people (great acting!).

However raw and realistic all individual stories are depicted in this movie, the director manages to blend in an otherworldly atmosphere by connecting all those stories in a strange but beautiful way, which makes this movie very rewarding to watch in my opinion. Thus I'd say it is strongly and smartly made and a great attempt on making a masterpiece.

A movie with parallel stories that meet each other in ingenious ways. An intense movie with very explicit scenes. A production with Swedish, Dutch, Swedish, Bulgarian and Yugoslavian actors. Shows many spots of the city of Amsterdam. The movie puts the spotlight on the dark side of Amsterdam's red light district and on problems related to immigration in Europe. Very natural acting performances. For me personally, this is one of the best movie I've seen in years and I'd say that with this masterpiece, Joost van Ginkel enters the circle of leading European directors like Vinterberg, etc. I would highly recommend this movie, especially to people from overseas and, in particular, the USA: widen your scope beyond Hollywood productions!

Well, it's not all bad but it's flawed from start to finish. Inconsistency and mediocrity is what bothers me the most. It lacks credibility also, for bad acting. The main characters were ok-ish, especially the kid, who I have to say, was in a league of his own, his drama had nothing to do with the rest of the film and can be judged as separate story, which I enjoyed. But the rest is like bad uninspired TV series, which you would enjoy only in the context of seeing how dreadful it can get. So, I would recommend this only as an experiment, if you are curious about dutch film making, or something... if not, avoid this one, or get ready to make fun of its mediocrity to help you get to the end.