A period (1930's) romance based on the life of Canadian jazz pianist Bob Langlois, with Roy in the lead role. Co-star is jazz/blues singer Dawn Tyler Watson.

What the critics say about Jack Paradise

Jazz film's got no rhythm

Magic is missing Roy Dupuis, great score can't save flimsy story

Brendan Kelly

The Gazette

19 February 2004

Roy Dupuis sure looks dashing in Jack Paradise, Les Nuits de Montréal.

Too bad that's one of the few memorable things in writer-director Gilles Noël's big-screen look at the golden age of jazz in Montreal. There is unquestionably a great movie to be made about what was going on at night spots like Rockhead's Paradise in 1940s, '50s and '60s Montreal, back when our burgh was swinging to the bopping sounds of hot U.S. jazz 52 weeks a year (rather than just during the two jazz festival weeks in July).

But Jack Paradise, sadly, is not the great Montreal jazz movie. There is a terrific score from veteran local jazzbo James Gelfand that neatly gives a sonic glimpse of several decades of jazz history and, as mentioned, Dupuis is looking good. Dupuis buffs - you know who you are - will go simply because it's a chance to see the hunky vedette sporting a clean-shaven look for the first time in ages.

The rest of us will be left wondering why Noël didn't spend more time fine-tuning a script that's, unfortunately, lacking in anything remotely resembling any narrative drive. In other words, there's not much of a story here.

What little story there is begins in the late '20s in St. Henri, where a little kid named Jacques Paradis (Roxan Bourdelais) is developing a liking for all things jazzy. That's at least partly thanks to his aunt, Jeanne (Dorothée Berryman), who's happiest banging out tunes on the piano.

Jacques Paradis grows up to become - wait for it! - Jack Paradise (Dupuis), who, at a young age, is the toast of the town, or at least the jazz scene, thanks to his deft touch on the keyboard. Stop me if you've heard this before. He then falls for a brilliant, but troubled jazz singer, Curly Brown (Dawn Tyler Watson). The press notes call Curly "une Billy Holliday du bas de la ville." You also might call Curly a major big-screen cliché.

Jack is devoted to his art, to the detriment of most of the people around him, but he tries to go straight, marrying the devoted Gisèle (Geneviève Rioux). Guess what? Quiet married life doesn't work for this piano star and he's soon back living and breathing the club scene.

Dupuis showcases his usual on-screen magnetism and Watson is quite the intense presence too. But Jack Paradise doesn't come close to capturing the storied magic of those golden jazz years and, worse, it's simply not a very engrossing drama.

Some excerpts from other reviewers …..

Three stars from Luc Perrault

La Presse

21 Feb 2004

….. The film is a mixture of the excellent and the less good. Gilles Noël excels in bringing the jazz of the era to life. It was in Montreal, after all, that Oscar Peterson started out. ….. The director is, however, less fortunate in the way he develops his narrative. The storyline doesn’t seem to go anywhere. One would have liked the secondary characters, often barely outlined, to have been better developed. Roy Dupuis, however, gives one of his better screen performances.  New discovery Dawn Tyler Watson is completely credible, except at the beginning as a still chaste and pure adolescent. It would have been a lot better to have entrusted this brief interlude to an actress the same age as the part. Despite its faults, Jack Paradise’s gamble pays off – to provide a new outlook to those who thought they knew everything about Montreal. …..

Three-and-a-half stars from Michel Coulombe

Radio-Canada

21 Feb 2004

…… The narrative (…) is cut into scattered slices of life which all in all leave little space for the actors.  At the finale, there’s not much emotion.
The film (…)  is presented as sequential images with no apparent logic.
Although it doesn’t always have the means to match its ambitions, it certainly has a soul and is stirring up the start of a disappointing year for Quebec cinema, still basking in the glory of 2003……

Séverine Kandelman

Voir

19 Feb 2004

….. Jack Paradise is above all an atmospheric film, where you feel there is a true respect and love for jazz. And a refreshing breeze blows through the whole thing, just like the sub-text (?) of the struggle for freedom. But, alas, it’s not enough. The film certainly lacks dramatic tension, a narrative drive giving consistency to the story which remains superficial. Full of restraint, Roy plays his part well though. But apart from the music, it’s nothing great. The character of Giselle, for example, is so sketchy that you can hardly believe the equivocation of Jack’s love-life. The whole thing lacks intensity. The only thing you can do is let yourself be carried away by the atmosphere of the era and the sublime voice of singer Dawn Tyler Watson……

 

Richard Boisvert

Le Soleil

22 February 2004

….It’s amazing the extent to which Jack Paradise lacks dramatic tension. It has neither intrigue, a high point, nor a denouement. Absolutely nothing. In 90 minutes you need something.

All of a sudden I wasn’t able to remember the final scene. No joking. In any case, I wouldn’t have given anything away by telling you about it . Wouldn’t you say that the most important part of a story is the ending? I only remember seeing the credits appear right out of nowhere. 

The other thing that gave me the impression of watching a long documentary without substance was the absence of  a central theme. If those credits had started rolling 5, 10 or even 15 minutes sooner, it wouldn’t have changed much. And it would have saved time.

…….

There are things in the film that aren’t at all clear, and I’m not the only person to say this. There is also someone who asked me not to give his/her name, because he/she appears in the film.

………

Director Gilles Noël wanted to concentrate the action on the ambivalent love-affair between Jack (Roy Dupuis) and Curly (Dawn Tyler Watson), a sort of Billie Holliday straight out of the director’s imagination ….The problem is Dawn Tyler Watson, a professional singer who has a thriving career in Montreal, but who doesn’t have the experience or the charisma of a real actress, nor apparently what it takes to interpret all the nuances of her role.

As for Roy Dupuis, he is almost a better musician than an actor At least in the film, he gives the illusion that the notes are really coming from his fingers. It’s quite realistic, in particular during a daring close-up, perfectly synchronized. But to see him in a profound dramatic performance, you’ll have to come back another time.

. …..

Another problem is that Jack’s wife,  played by that reliable actress Geneviève Rioux, appears far too late in the story. The couple’s relationship, the birth of their handicapped son, their marital problems, all seem to get dealt with between two cigarettes.

Jack Paradise also suffers from taking itself very seriously. The film has no humour, no surprises, is written and shot very conventionally, and the staging is pretty inept, thank you very much. There are experienced actors knocking themselves out in really pathetic supporting roles. Fortunately for them, their names don’t appear in the credits. At least not all of them. …..

<<ouch!  - viv >>

Three-and-a-half stars from

Planète Québec

18 February 2004

….  Finally, and oddly, the actors aren’t given much space, but they fill it well. The don’t say very much, starting with Roy Dupuis, whose performance is as accurate and natural as always. The music says it all for him, for all of them.

……

Yes, Roy Dupuis is fond of jazz, but as an amateur.  “My challenge was to believe in myself. James (Gelfand)’s music helped me a lot.” He listened to the musician for a long time, and watched his hands on the piano.  Even so it was a lot more difficult for the actor to handsync, as one might call it, than to play it without any preparation!