ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE (1998)
by Matt Goodman
can make for a good film. Larry Clark (Kids) directs James Woods
(Nixon, Casino) and Melanie Griffith (spouse of Antonio Banderas)
in his viscerally real style as a scheming couple who "adopt"
two young lovers into their family in order to teach them the ropes of thievery.
Vincent Kartheiser and Natasha Gregson Wagner play Bobby and Rosie, the
young couple initially seduced by Mel's (Woods) and Sid's (Griffith) world
of money, drugs, and crime. Drug abuse and sloppy execution eventually send
the group into a downward spiral as the father-son relationship between
Mel and Bobby disintegrates into bitter resentment. Strong acting, directing,
and character development eventually lose momentum and give way to unfulfilled
promises in the characters and conclusion of what seemingly should have
been a better movie.
Although
Clark calls Another Day In Paradise his "Hollywood" film,
his signature stomach-turning violence and explicit sexual scenes gives
this movie intense originality. Bobby is bloodied and brutally beaten
with a nightstick as a result of his carelessness when he steals a bag
of change from vending machines. Clark does well to bring a much-needed
touch of gory reality to his movie's violence. Bobby takes several days
to recover from his encounter with the vending machine security guard.
Mel, a friend of a friend and former army medic, is brought in to help
with the healing. Mel sees heart in Bobby who managed to get away with
his loot despite the severity of his injuries and decides to take him
under his wing.
A sarcastic and emotional leader, Mel is played powerfully by Woods. He tells Bobby that the difference between stealing change and stealing Cadillacs is in thorough professionalism. Bobby immediately takes to Mel as a father figure in order to fill the void left by his own abusive father and upbringing. The two agree to work together along with their girlfriends. Bobby and Rosie are immediately seduced by grow accustom to the lifestyle of expensive clothes, fine dining, and late-night partying. In a drunken stupor, Bobby exclaims that he's "the happiest [he's] ever been in [his] whole life!"
A drug-trafficking health clinic is the first target for
Mel and Bobby. The duo steals thousands of dollars worth of drugs and,
along with Sid and Rosie, wait to sell it in a seedy motel. As they wait,
it 
becomes
evident that Mel isn't a very good teacher and Bobby isn't a very good
student. As his substance abuse becomes worse, Mel is too quick to put
a gun and responsibility into Bobby's hands who wants to live a man's
life, but is still really just a boy. Much of the film's middle concentrates
on the four thieves waiting for the action to come to them. This lack
of action slows the drama and pacing when you least want or expect it.
As the four continue to wait on more drug buyers, Rosie
tells Bobby that she is pregnant. Initially, Bobby doesn't want Rosie
to keep the baby. He's living a man's life, but believes he is too young
to have children of his own. Rosie does convince him to change his mind
and they decide to raise the child together. When Bobby and Rosie break
the news to Mel and Sid, the movie gets a needed
push in the development of Griffith's character, Sid.
Sid is hugely excited about Rosie's pregnancy. She and Mel can never have children and her huge excitement reveals an interesting old-fashioned sentimentality and motherly instinct to go along with her heroin dependency. Seeking more out of his relationship with Mel, Bobby asks for his advice concerning his pregnant girlfriend. Mel makes it clear that he isn't concerned and doesn't share Bobby's feelings of family when it comes to their relationship. On the other hand, Rosie's relationship with Sid pays off only in drug abuse.
Drugs begin to poison Mel's "business" judgement and a deal goes horribly wrong. It is only Sid coming to the rescue with a shotgun that saves Mel, Bobby, and Rosie. The hideous pain and violence serves as a nice contradiction to the posh lifestyle that Bobby and Rosie enjoyed only weeks earlier. Once recovered from his injuries, Mel wants to go after a jewel heist right away, but Bobby wanted to relax and take some time off. The relationship between the men is further clarified when Mel berates his pupil verbally and attacks him physically. Once again, Bobby finds himself in an abusive relationship with a father figure.
When
the toll that the life is taking on the kids is evident, Sid tries to
convince Mel to let them go. Already down a dark path of alcoholism, Mel
becomes abusive to Sid and refuses to go on without Bobby and Rosie. Sid
recognizes that despite her fantasies, she is not the motherly type but
Mel is only interested on a business level. Even when Rosie begins to
stick needles in her arm and begs him to stop robbing, Bobby still can't
stand up to Melvin who 
has
become just another in the line of mentally crippling male influences
in his life.
When the jewelry job goes bad once again you begin to wonder if Mel was ever any good at this at all, or if he only seemed like he knew what he was doing next to the relative inexperience of a kid who robs snack machines. When in-fighting becomes the focal point of the dysfunctional family the dialogue gets mired in unfunny and repetitive yelling rather than the smart and edgy interaction that did so well to define the characters earlier.
Continuing to unravel, the junkie-thief lifestyle decays
until it's a junkie-unsuccessful thief racket, leaving everyone far worse
off than when they began. Rather than putting an end to it and standing
up
to Melvin, Bobby becomes only more passive and impressionable. Between
sticking needles of heroine into her neck, Sid is really the only one
who changes in the movie when she comes to full terms and acceptance with
herself and her lot in life. Short bursts of intense, ugly violence aren't
enough to pull a sagging story through to resolution. Unique character
development and dialogue stall leaving the audience with a void of unfulfilled
promise. The glamour and sex appeal of a life in crime boil down to ugly
drug addiction and failure.