Escobar – Paradise Lost ***½ (2015, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisac) – Movie Review

Josh Hutcherson stars as a young Canadian surfer who goes to live on the paradise beach in Colombia with his brother (Brady Corbet), and meets Maria (Claudia Traisac), the woman of his dreams. But then heaven turns into hell when he also meets her sinisterly charming uncle, cocaine king Pablo Escobar.

Benicio Del Toro is hugely charismatic, relishing his role as the drug baron, who starts cuddly and avuncular then turns into a monster. Hutcherson is appealing, as always, but unusually animated, giving perhaps his most animated ever performance. Traisac is mostly just decorative. The movie’s all about the two men, and the tension, danger and action surrounding them.

The bodies pile high in writer-director Andrea Di Stefano‘s way-better-than-expected thriller, recommended to fans of Godfather-style mob movies, with Colombia and Escobar providing new slants and a fresh take on old themes. This long, epic crime saga bristles with tension throughout. And it’s even got a thrilling, big finish.

The movie, the first as writer or director for Italian actor Andrea Di Stefano, was shot entirely in Panama.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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