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Welcome to Paradise (1995 TV Movie)
Welcome to Paradise
25 October 2002
Three friends from Columbus, Ohio go to Paradise Beach, Florida during Spring Break week to revisit the vacation spot of their youth 20 years ago. Mel Harris is Claire Denowski, an advertising executive who goes on assignment, Shelley Long is housewife and mother Anne Winger, and Delane Matthews is sales woman and recently divorced Denise Discotis. Claire's company has hired French Olympic skier Jean-Luc Perron (Francois-Eric Gendron) as a spokesperson, and Claire finds herself attracted to him, Denise meets her lifeguard first love Matt Sheridan (Michael McGrady), and Anne is bothered by the attentions of their hotel desk manager George Peck (Ian Ziering), in spite of Anne being the one of the three who is married.

The teleplay by Bart Baker places `the fearless three' in an adolescent environment of buffed bodies, hi-jinks, alcohol and sex, where they are so conscious of the age difference that they wear make-up on the beach, and each has a turn in being humiliated. The worst is Anne, since the only time Long is shown to be desirable is when she is alone, painting her toenails with a leg outstretched. Her situation with George, who knows she is married but pursues her anyway, allows him to scold her for her justifiable rejection. (That Ziering acts as narcissistically as on his TV series Beverly Hills 90210 makes us pity Anne even more). There is also an odd use of cross-dressing, where the threesome are shown to be most ungenerous.

Harris uses eye mugging, gives Anne a long look of comic anger when she learns of Anne roping Claire into shared accomodation at their frat hotel, and is funny when yelling at someone who crashes into her on the street with `I'm walking here'. The treatment interestingly plays off Harris' mannish body language, though Jean-Luc's first view of Claire has Harris lit beautifully, and she is reduced to jumping into a pool in bra and panties. Jean-Luc surprises Claire eating seafood wearing a bib, and drinking beer in a six-pak as she sits in a masculine pose, and when she is forced into modelling with Jean-Luc for the campaign, her protestations are ironic in light of Harris' initial modelling days.

Director Bill Norton uses slow motion when all the women dive into the pool, and various other sporting activities, but his use of extras for flesh quotant borders on sleaze.
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