Fool's Paradise

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Nick M A wounded soldier, Arthur, falls in love with a French dancer, Rosa, and after he returns home he cannot shake the memory of her. A local cantina dancer, Poll, falls in love with him, but when Rosa comes to town he only has eyes for her, and a spiteful move by Poll ends up blinding him. Since he can't tell the difference, Poll pretends to be Rosa by affecting a French accent, and marries Arthur under false pretenses. In a moment of remorseful clarity she hires a doctor to restore his sight, and once he regains his vision he has to come to grips with the reality of his circumstances while Poll must endure the consequences of her selfishness. The scenario for Fool's Paradise was written by emotional illiterates ineptly attempting to say something about the nature of true love. The intended message seems to be that love is selfless, patient, and requires sacrifice. It falls on its face, however, because in the end it has the audacity to expect us to feel sympathetically about Poll. But how can we after she cruelly tricks the man she supposedly loved, egregiously lies to him for an extended period of time, burns down his house rather than accepting that she only had her self to blame, and then makes an idiotically self-serving decision that almost gets them both killed? This decision, I might add, bears a striking parallel to the one made by Rosa that supposedly teaches Arthur what real love is in the first place. The only characters in the film I found to be sympathetic were Arthur's dog, whom he abandons once he regains his vision, and Poll's boyfriend. He treats her poorly at the beginning of the picture, yes, but by the end he seems to have softened and genuinely loves her. She treats him like garbage, however, and plays with his heart to see how far Arthur is willing to go to win her back. One almost doesn't realize the strength of the performances given by all of the major players because of how offensive the scenario is. This is *not* one of DeMille's better romance pictures. In fact, the man actually seems to be getting worse rather than better with age considering that this is the third sack of cack he's handed us this year. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/25 Full Review Angela P This movie was terrible and pointless. I was bored throughout the whole thing. Such a missed opportunity to make a modern charlie chaplin but what it ended up being was an atrocious film can't believe with so many talented actors and this was the best they could do. It was just bad‼️ Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 05/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Fool's Paradise

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