GOODBYE PARADISE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CARL SCHULTZ / SCREENPLAY: BOB ELLIS, DENNY LAWRENCE / CAST: RAY BARRETT, PAUL CHUBB, GUY DOLEMAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (AUS)
Bursting with 80s Antipodean swagger, Goodbye Paradise is an unusual mixture of thriller, travelogue, political drama and autobiographical musings which pivots on the mid-life crisis of disgraced former deputy police commissioner and lapsed ex-alcoholic, Mike Stacy. The DVD sleeve labels it as an “Ozploitation classic,” but it’s a classier affair than that.
Down on his luck and shunned by his former colleagues, Stacy hopes to find redemption (and a new income) by writing an exposé of corruption in the force. But his plans are soon derailed by the authorities and, instead, he’s hired by Labor Senator McCredie to try to find his missing eighteen year old daughter, Kathy. It’s a premise that sends Stacy off on a frequently bizarre series of encounters which unfold across the city’s dark underbelly and inside the weirder outposts of its counterculture.
The storytelling that follows is what might be called “free-form,” with everything held together by a bravura performance by Ray Barrett in the central role. Barrett brings out the pathos, resilience and self-deprecating wit of his deeply flawed character. In clumsier hands, Stacy could simply be an irksome, self-destructive drunk, but Barrett manages to make him a likeable anti-hero.
Some strands of the script are designed to illuminate the story’s political parables (including a caustic critique of Australian Labor party politics), while others are designed to let the viewer spend time hanging out with quirky characters on the fringes of Australian society. All of this is mixed in with efforts to drive forward the film’s more traditional gumshoe tropes, as Stacy tracks down his quarry.
There’s too much going on here and, while Schultz is an accommodating director, he’s trying to bring too many elements to the screen which means there’s little chance for a consistent tone or focus. An explosive finale and a lot of last-minute exposition try to wrap things up with a flourish, but the piece doesn’t quite gel.
A strong 80s vibe infuses the way the film is framed and shot (Space Invaders and disco were clearly still cutting-edge culture Down Under in the early 1980s), and there are some great period fashions and oddball environs to enjoy.
There’s a deep sense of cynicism towards authority and those who exercise power running through every frame of this film. Political ambition is seen to be a cover for ruthless greed and megalomania. The barstool wisdom provided by Stacy’s world-weary narration shows him bemoaning the erosion of innocence and decency and the cruel privations of ageing: “paradise is youth,” Stacy laments.
The film is a picture of a society struggling with transition: the comforting certainties of the old 50s world that Stacy knew are fast disappearing, while the shape of the emerging future promised by the 1980s remains unclear. It all makes for a melancholic but not disagreeable watch. Barrett’s brilliant performance lifts the movie and there’s fun in seeing the filmic rhythms of noir transposed to the sunlit beaches of the Gold Coast.
Special features are limited to a thirty minute talking head retrospective with director Schultz.
