Blue Infinity Films Film Review - Searching for Paradise

Ace (Chris Young) is a vigilance who believes that his work makes the world a better place as he metaphorically looking to return home.  His assignments are to terminate the worst killers in the world to improve the fate of the species as a whole.  The short opens with Ace towering over a cowering middle aged man whose back story eerily resembles that of Canadian schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo. Ace dressed completely in black ignores his targets pleas and completes his contract.

Ace's other target is based on Anders Behring author of the 2011 Norway mass murders.  In the piece Adam is presented at two stages in his life. However,  this time our protagonist has an epiphany that makes him question and change his role from a tool of death to one of mercy.

Writer directors Chris Young and Chloe Bellande did extensive research to build the profile of the targets. An event in Chris' life was the spark for the Ace character who does a complete flip of his driving force during the film as he comes to realize that his actions make him no better than the people he is hunting.

Medhat Hanbali's score deserves special mention. The short features stripped down dialogue making the score key in filling in the gaps. Hanbali work shines especially to set the heavy dark tone of ice cold assassin in the opening then at the point of the life force change that overblown bright light and airy.

Searching For Paradise is a lean succinct production that relays on a few key moments to make its point. There is enough of a skeleton her to flesh out a full feature or television production. There are no wasted moments in the 20 minus production. The message is a valuable one yet one that may not be readily received with the recent violent events in spots like Orlando, Paris and Brussels.

*** out of 4

Searching for Paradise | Chris Young / Chloe Bellande | Canada | 2016 | 21 Minutes.

Tags: Hit Man, Serial Killer, Vigilance, Execution, Forgiveness, Dark, Light, Redemption