Women-in-Prison Movies
Paradise Road, 1999
By this time, when middle-age actresses were an endangered species in mainstream movies, they occasionally found solidarity in group projects, like this high-minded Australian drama directed by Bruce Beresford (Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy). Oscar winners Glenn Close and Frances McDormand join young comers Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Ehle in a platoon of women imprisoned by the Japanese on Sumatra in World War II; they alleviate their ordeal by performing classical choral works. Inspiring and frighteningly well-acted, the film is similar to the 1980 TV-movie Playing for Time, starring Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander and Verna Bloom as Nazi death-camp inmates who prolong their lives by agreeing to play music for the officers. Perhaps Lindsay Lohan should catch one of these films. Seeing all these laureled ladies may be as close as she'll get to an Oscar.