Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I have to admit to some disappointment with the 2005 documentary "Reel Paradise." I remember reading positive reviews of it and liked the trailer for the movie that I saw on "The Beat My Heart Skipped." The premise is great Indie film "rainmaker"/"guru" John Pierson (author of Spike Mike Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema and involved in getting Parting Glances, She's Gotta Have It, The Thin Blue Line, Roger & Me, Slacker, Clerks, Crumb, and The Blair Witch Project made and distributed) bought a movie theater on Taveuni, an island within Fiji and showed free movies for a year. Among the hits in the 288-seat Meridian 180 Cinema were "Bend It Like Beckham," "Steamboat Bill, Jr.," and "Rabbitproof Fence," but he also programmed "X-Men 2," The Hot Chick," and "Jackass."

The Fijian audience loved slapstick and were not inhibited about making chills and frights audible. I wish that the documentary (made by Steve James, who made "Hoop Dreams," one of the greatest documentaries ever) looked more at how Fijians apprehended the American movies. There are many shots of the audience whooping and hollering during movies, but not a single one of a Fijian talking about any of the movies Pierson showed. Especially disappointing to me is that after a breakfast table discussion between Pierson and his sarcastic 13-year-old-son Wyatt about plans to screen "Apocalypse Now Redux," and showing Wyatt taking over introducing the film when his father got sick, I have no idea how much of the audience stayed through the movie or what any of them thought of it. There is not even any retrospective comment about the event from Wyatt.

There is no lack of talking head footage, a mix of interview and interactions within the Pierson family and with their (Anglo) landlord, Fijian cook, and the best friends Wyatt and his sister Georgia (16), Tawake and Miriama. The young 'uns go to school and become far more involved with the local people than their parents. The instigator of the project, John, seems to learn the least about Fijian life and culture. His wife, Janet, does more to meet Fijians, but delivering the gift of different movies every night is pretty much all the Great White Father does.

He does mention "Mosquito Coast" as a warning lesson about forcing a family into a remote tropical location, and the results of the Pierson expedition (which was conceived to last a year, not to be a permanent move as Harrison Ford's character in "Mosquito Coast" made) are less dire. Their house is burglarized during the hours of free movies, and John and Janet suspect everyone (seriously enraging Georgia; Wyatt is merely sardonic about his parents' suspicions, as he is about most things, and "Gangs of New York" in particular).

As I already mentioned, John gets sick (he thinks dengue fever, but the physicians' diagnosis is never revealed). They are sad to leave, but realize that they have had some great experiences living on a remote island. Some of the children's hanging out with their friends is onscreen and thereby shared with the audience.

There are some brief interview segments with the Enemy of the free movies, the local Catholic church/school hierarchies -- and John sniffing "Who are they to criticize un-Fijian outside influence? The pot calling the kettle black.")

A lot of this is entertaining, but, as I said, I'd have liked to hear from 180 Meridian Cinema audience members what they thought about the succession of movies, or particular ones ("Apocalypse Now Redux" in particular). As usual, the movie is about the white interlopers (civilizers?); it is about the Piersons, not about the Fijians. Even accepting John's definition of the situation -- "The cinema is my village" -- there is much unrealized potential for ethnography of his principality as experienced by the Fijians.

James and the film crew were only there for a month, which might account for some of the failure to get into the lives and views of the Fijians the way "Hoop Dream" got into US ghetto families and the NBA aspirants. "Reel Paradise" is more like a home movie of the Piersons' year in Fiji. In that I don't think that the experiment had any lasting effects on Taveuni, and suspect that it had lasting effects on Georgia and Wyatt, this may in a way be fair-- but for that documentary, I'd like a follow-up later of Georgia and Wyatt reflecting back on their year in Taveuni.

The island definitely looks like a tropical paradise. Even the church is quite beautiful. Aside from looking good, the DVD includes deleted scenes, an alternate ending, the full segment from Pierson's "Split Screen" that inspired the year-long stay, , and a complete list of the films Pierson showed at the 180 Meridian Cinema. I have not gotten around to listening to the commentary track laid down by Steve James and Janet Pierson. I gather that she criticizes much and he attempts to 'splain himself and what he put on film.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD