Escobar: Paradise Lost movie review (2015)

“Escobar: Paradise Lost” suffers from the same problem as “My Week with Marilyn,” “Me and Orson Welles” and “The Last King of Scotland,” three films that also chose to capture legendary figures through the eyes of a relatable innocent. So, instead of a biopic of Pablo Escobar starring Benicio Del Toro, we get a fictionalized tale of a Canadian transplant who stumbles into Escobar’s circle of influence when he marries Escobar’s beloved niece starring Josh Hutcherson. Basically, the protagonist is nowhere near as interesting as the title character, and so whenever Del Toro is off-camera, which is more than half the film, we feel his absence to the degree that one wonders if the film wouldn’t work better without the true figure behind it. We have different expectations for casting as perfect as “Benicio Del Toro as Pablo Escobar” than we do from “Josh Hutcherson as Some Dumb Canadian.”

Nick (Hutcherson) just wants to hang on the beach with his brother (Brady Corbet) and his family. They build a surf shack in the middle of nowhere. Bro will cook; Nick will teach surfing. It truly will be paradise—and debut director Andrea Di Stefano does a solid job of conveying the beauty of this part of the world. One day, Nick runs into a lovely young woman named Maria (Claudia Traisac), who asks if he’s going to bring more “Yankees” down to their part of their world. Nick politely corrects her; he’s Canadian. Nick is very polite.

Nick is also a tad naïve. When Maria introduces him to her rich uncle Pablo Escobar, Nick doesn’t exactly ask the right questions. He does happen to wonder aloud how Uncle Pablo has so much money, to which Maria casually answers, “Cocaine.” Huh? You don't say. Not long later, Nick mentions over polite conversation that some local thugs have been giving him and his brother trouble, including attacking Nick with a violent dog (in a harrowing scene). Anyone who’s seen a movie will know the thugs end up dead. And then Nick happens to be on the Escobar estate on a day that he’s not supposed to be there, and things get really bad.