''Paradise Highway'' is a 2022

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

written and directed by Anna Gutto in her feature length debut and starring

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...

Frank Grillo Frank Anthony Grillo (born June 8, 1965) is an American actor and martial artist. He played Brock Rumlow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films '' Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' (2014), '' Captain America: Civil War'' (2016), '' Avengers: ...

, and

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...

. An international co-production between the United States, Germany, and Switzerland, the film was released in the United States on July 29, 2022, by Lionsgate.

Plot

To save the life of her brother, truck driver Sally reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo, a girl named Leila. As they begin a danger-fraught journey across state lines, a dogged FBI operative sets out on their trail, determined to do whatever it takes to terminate a human-trafficking operation and bring Sally and Leila to safety.

Cast

as Sally *

as Dennis *

as Gerick *

Hala Finley Hala Finley (born May 18, 2009) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in '' Man with a Plan'' (2016–2020) as Emme Burns and in '' We Can Be Heroes'' (2020) as Ojo. Early life Finley was born on May 18, 2009, in Kansas City, M ...

as Leila * Cameron Monaghan as FBI Special Agent Finley Sterling * Christiane Seidel as Claire *

Veronica Ferres Veronica Maria Cäcilia Ferres (; born 10 June 1965) is a German film, television, and stage actress. Her 2007 portrayal of Sara Bender in ''Die Frau vom Checkpoint Charlie'', based on the true story of Jutta Fleck, earned her the award for Be ...

as Rose *Desiree Wood as Pattie *Dianne McNair-Smith as Dolly *Walker Babington as Terrence *

Jwaundace Candece Jwaundace Candece (born January 13, 1978) is an American actress, stunt woman and semi-retired professional wrestler. Career Professional wrestling Candece began her professional wrestling career with Women of Wrestling from 2000 to 2001, ...

as Tesia *Jackie Dallas as Deborah *Jim Dougherty as Paul

Production

Filming occurred in Jackson and

Clarksdale, Mississippi Clarksdale is a city in and the county seat of Coahoma County, Mississippi, United States. It is located along the Sunflower River. Clarksdale is named after John Clark, a settler who founded the city in the mid-19th century when he establishe ...

, in July 2021. Filming also took place in Brookhaven, Mississippi. As of August 2021, the film was in post-production. In October 2021, it was announced that Lionsgate acquired North American distribution rights to the film.

Release

The film was released in theaters and on-demand in the United States by Lionsgate on July 29, 2022. The film was also shown at the Locarno Festival in August 2022.

Reception

Box office

''Paradise Highway'' grossed $0 in North America, and $222,607 in other territories.

Critical response

On review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 17% based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. It has an approval rating of 48 out of a 100 based on 5 reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Joe Leydon of '' Variety'' called the film "A shrewdly constructed melodrama that does not transcend cliches and conventions so much as show how useful and effective they can be in the right hands". Robert Daniels of ''

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times' ...

'' wrote: "''Paradise Highway'' is the kind wayward, tonally muddled project an actress the caliber of Binoche would only sign onto if promises were broken and payback was required". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''s Concepción de León had this to say about ''Paradise Highway'': "Though it is refreshing to see members of law enforcement focused on recovering and supporting a victim rather than pursuing her abusers, it does not allow for much narrative tension".

References

External links

* * 2022 thriller films 2022 films 2022 directorial debut films 2020s American films 2020s English-language films American thriller films English-language German films English-language Swiss films Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation Films about human trafficking in the United States Films set in Arkansas Films set in Mississippi Films set in Tennessee Films shot in Mississippi German thriller films Lionsgate films Swiss thriller films Trucker films {{Thriller-film-stub