Ruby in Paradise (1993)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This 1993 film by Victor Nunez, Starring Ashley Judd, is a slow-paced character study that takes its time going nowhere in particular, and does it beautifully. It tells the story of Ruby Lee Gissing, a young woman who packs up her old beater of a car one day and just drives out of her dead-end life in a rural Tennessee backwater in search of something, anything, better.This isn't the sort of film that builds up to a melodramatic moment where Ruby must decide whether to stay or go. In fact, the very first scene with her driving away with her old life (literally) in her rear-view mirror would have made a great final scene to another movie. Instead, we really don't know much of her backstory, other than she's finally, as she says later, "Made it out of Tennessee without getting beat up or pregnant."For no reason other than a pleasant memory of a vacation she had as a child, she lands in a seaside tourist town (Panama City Beach). Unfortunately, it is the off-season and it looks as if she may may have traded one future-less existence for another.Here the movie takes a subtle turn. She finds a job (not a great one, but it pays the bills). She starts keeping a journal. She makes friends. She makes missteps with relationships. She starts building a new life that isn't going to change the world but it is better than the one she left behind. It all unfolds by degrees that some will find dull but many will find true and familiar and poignant. By the end of the movie we realize that paradise can be what you make of it. And we know that Ruby will be just fine.This movie is currently posted on YouTube and has never been released in any other format other than VHS. See it while you can.

This is without a doubt the most boring movie I have ever seen. Ashley Judd does a really good acting job, but the script and directing are terrible. Were they trying to bore us to death? This movie plods on and on monotonously. There is no buildup, no climax; in fact there is no plot at all. By the time it was halfway through, I began to pray that it would end. But it didn't. It just kept going, one pointless scene followed by another equally pointless scene. Why I kept watching it, I do not know. Maybe, deep down, I thought that it would get more interesting towards the end. Maybe I was waiting for some kind of point or moral to be made. If so, I was waiting in vain, for there is no point to this movie.I don't expect every movie I watch to be filled with action and suspense. However, I do expect to find something interesting or engaging. Is that too much to hope for?No offense to you if you like this movie, but "Ruby in Paradise" is dull, boring, pointless, and mind-numbing. Anyone who views it in its entirety without going bonkers should get a T-shirt that says "I survived 'Ruby in Paradise'".

My brother brought this movie home from the rental store and I remember expecting it to be such a bore. I think the title especially put me off. I can't ever remember starting a movie with such low expectations and being so completely won over. I watched the movie twice before I let my brother take it back to the store. It is very infrequent that a movie speaks to me the way this one did. I was completely caught up in Ruby's situation as she tries to make her way through her life. The bad thing about this movie is that it seems to end so quickly. I could have kept watching for hours. Another downside is that I have been unsatisfied with everything Ashley Judd has done since. She is so perfect in this movie. This film is easily in my top ten favorites of all time.

I've watched this film a dozen times at least. Victor Nunez has created a wonderful work of art, and Ashley Judd is an amazing actor. This movie has tremendous substance in so many ways, I'm mesmerized each time I see it. I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in substantive films.