RUBY IN PARADISE
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Ashley Judd, Todd Field, Bentley Mitchum, Dorothy Lyman. Screenwriter/Director: Victor Nunez.
Truth be told, I should disqualify myself from reviewing RUBY IN PARADISE. You see, I have a certain bias: I've fallen helplessly, hopelessly, desperately in love with Ashley Judd. As Ruby Lee Gissing, the central character in writer/director Victor Nunez's low-key character study, Judd delivers a phenomenally appealing performance, capturing a young woman's struggle to make her life better with frankness and intelligence.
As RUBY IN PARADISE opens, Ruby is on the road, fleeing her Tennessee home for something, anything, better. She finds herself in Panama City, Florida, a summer resort town now nearly shut down with the coming of fall. Still, Ruby manages to find a job at a local souvenir store run by pragmatic Mildred Chambers (Dorothy Lyman). From there, Ruby begins to explore her new world, including a brief fling with Mrs. Chambers' playboy son Ricky (Bentley Mitchum). Soon she begins a more meaningful relationship with Mike (Todd Field), an intelligent but cynical biker who works in a plant nursery. As Ruby begins to settle into a routine much like the one from which she ran, she begins to examine why it was she moved, what she is looking for, and how, in the words of best friend Rochelle (Allison Dean), "to survive with your soul intact."
RUBY IN PARADISE is not an easy film to get wrapped up in. It moves very slowly, and virtually nothing substantive happens from a plotting standpoint. RUBY is an internal story in an external medium, and will not be for everyone. But that internal story is one rarely examined, the story of a young woman on a journey of self-discovery, and Victor Nunez handles it with gentle insight. While Ruby is not an eloquent or well-educated woman, there is nothing simple about her. She is filled with complex and conflicting emotions and attitudes--a basic morality colliding with her rejection of her religious upbringing, a hope that life can be better coupled with a certain cynicism. The voice-over narration of Ruby's diary entries provide sharp snapshots of her inner life. So much is conveyed in Ruby's description of her first night with Mike: "And yes, we got it on, all tender and romantic." Ruby Lee Gissing is one of the best written female characters to grace the screen this year.
Oh yes, and there's this Ashley Judd person. Her portrayal of Ruby is nothing short of stunning, a heartbreaking yet ultimately affirming take on one woman's strength of spirit. As RUBY IN PARADISE opens, Judd adopts the look of a newborn, an openness to the new opportunities available to her combined with the fear of being thrust into an unfamiliar world. It is this look that makes a winner of Ruby's first encounter with Ricky, looking at him curiously through shelves and over the counter at the souvenir store despite Rochelle's warnings about him; it is this look that lends poignancy to a scene in which Ruby takes a deep smell of her quilt as she goes to sleep, remembering a more familiar place. Later, as Ruby's new life becomes more of a struggle, Judd keeps carrying herself straighter and straighter in defiance. At her center is a fierce determination, her refusal to surrender in the face of challenge etched into every movement. Her pride in her own resourcefulness is captured in a comment to Rochelle: "I managed to get out without getting pregnant or beat up; that's something." This is a beautiful job by a natural young actress who commands the camera's attention.
If RUBY IN PARADISE fails to be fully satisfying, it's because Nunez doesn't surround Ruby with characters one-tenth as interesting as she is. Ricky is so slimy and transparent that he inspired hoots from most of the audience, and Bentley Mitchum is not subtle enough an actor to underplay the easiest mannerisms to overplay. Todd Field handles Mike a bit better, but Mike also is too much of a "type" instead of a person. "Mama's Family" and "All My Children" veteran Dorothy Lyman could have been much more interesting as Ruby's surrogate mother, but she's too cold in her early scenes and maintains a certain aloofness throughout. I was much more interested in tangential characters like the simple young girl who lives next door to Ruby. It's too bad Nunez couldn't have invested as much in the featured players.
RUBY IN PARADISE does drift somewhat, and its two hour running time is a bit much. Still, it's amazing what one great character and one great performance can do for a slow-moving story, and Ashley Judd's Ruby is worth the price of admission all by herself.
Ashley, if you're reading this, I'm in the book.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 souvenirs: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews