I also like the way filmmaker Gutto takes the time to examine each truck stop and the seedy world outside of the real one that exists for truckers, which goes beyond just driving and sleeping. There are a few nice touches in Paradise Highway, including the CB radio conversations among the road’s few female drivers, who form a tight sisterly bond and come to each other’s rescue when needed. The escaped girl is causing problems for him, but since it’s Frank Grillo playing the role, we get a sense he’s not being completely straight with his desperate sister. Dennis is in jail for doing something to protect her, which is why she’s so eager to see him out of prison unharmed. Binoche seems overqualified for this role, but that results in her really inhabiting the character, revealing small things about Sally’s history that are not explicitly discussed in the screenplay. She’s seen the worst of humanity in her travels, so she is particularly eager to keep Leila safe, even if the girl doesn’t trust or listen to her. Seeing as though it’s a bit difficult to hide a big rig on the open road, Sally moves from truck stop to truck stop and hiding place to hiding place-locations she picked up over her many years as one of very few female truck drivers. Morgan Freeman plays a retired agent who specialized in trafficking cases and still comes in as a consultant from time to time he’s partnered with relative newbie, Finley Sterling (Cameron Monaghan), who tends to operate by the book but is eager to learn from the best, having little field work experience himself. When she’s about to deliver Leila to a man that will take her to her final destination, Leila gets hold of Sally’s gun and kills him, forcing the two to run from both the traffickers and the FBI. Just days before Dennis is sprung, Sally gets one more illicit shipping run, but this time the cargo is a young girl, perhaps not yet a teenager, named Leila (Hala Finley), and although Sally is dead set against the idea of transporting a young girl under any circumstance, she agrees to take her, thinking perhaps she can look out for her in the process. It’s an ugly situation, but she’s very protective of her brother, so she does it.
But in order to keep him alive until his release, she has been running various contraband in her truck on behalf of people in prison with Dennis who say they will kill him if she doesn’t. Her brother Dennis (Frank Grillo) is in prison, about to be released, and she is eagerly awaiting his return. Juliette Binoche plays Sally, a truck driver who puts in long hours, mostly up and down the east coast.
In a week filled with oddities at the movie theater, few are stranger in my mind than the feature debut from writer/director Anna Gutto, Paradise Highway, which features two Academy Award winners in a story about the intersection of human trafficking and long-haul trucking.
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