Return to Paradise
by Joseph Ruben
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anne Heche, David Conrad, Joaquin Phoenix, Vera Farmiga, Vince VaughnDirector: Joseph Ruben
Brand: Universal Studios
Producer: Alain Bernheim
Producer: David Arnold
Producer: Ezra Swerdlow
Writer: Bruce Robinson
Writer: Olivier Schatzky
Writer: Pierre Jolivet
Writer: Wesley Strick
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-11-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Return to Paradise
Movie Review: Outstanding masterpiece - on par with The Four Feathers
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is about personal integrity and offers some of the most powerful performances I've ever seen by Joaquin Phoenix as Lewis McBride & Vincent Vaughn as John 'Sheriff' Volgecherev. The plot sets up the moral quandry - one of three vacationing Americans (Lewis) is jailed and sentenced to death in Malaysia and, after serving two years of the jail sentence in squalor and deprivation, is scheduled be executed by hanging in 8 days. Lewis was convicted of drug trafficking due to the amount of hashish left behind when two of the Americans with whom he was vacationing returned to the U.S. As Americans in a foreign country, although they did not know one another prior to the vacation, they partied together during the vacation and became friends. If both the American friends return, stand trial & serve sentences in Malaysia, Lewis will not be executed & his sentence will be reduced to just 3 years (1 yr remaining). If only one friend returns and serves his sentence, both Lewis and the friend will have 6-yr sentences but Lewis will not be executed. Sheriff and Tony Croft (David Conrad) are approached by McBride's attorney, Beth Eastern (Anne Heche). Unbeknownst to them, she is McBride's sister. Beth's dogged pursuit of Sheriff and Tony is impassioned by her love for her brother yet her relationship with Lewis is not divulged until later. While both agree to return at first, only Sheriff manages to follow through. He is shocked at the sight of McBride yet despite his own fear, he manages to be the rock upon which McBride must rely in enduring what faces him. Upon witnessing the strength and ultimate selflessness of Sheriff, Beth falls in love with him and she promises that she will be there for him when he is released.
In summary, Sheriff & Tony are asked to accompany attorney Beth Eastern back to Malaysia and sacrifice 3-6 yrs of their lives, spending it in the confines of a prison that is rather horrific compared to U.S. standards, in order to save the life of a fellow American they met while vacationing. The decision is made more difficult since the bonds from close friendship or family are absent. The decision to Return to Paradise, sans these emotional bonds, is thereby made based solely on the sense of responsibility each man feels as well as his own perception regarding what sacrifice he expects of himself to shoulder that responsibility.
This is a film which delivers a great plot and outstanding performances and keeps the viewer's interest. The issues that are broached and the manner in which each character deals with them are arresting and a viewer will not remain untouched by the enormity of the human condition. This film focuses more on the processes involved in arriving at the decision to knowingly and willingly sacrifice oneself in order to be true to one's convictions while it discloses less of the suffering and strife of imprisonment.
Summary of Return to Paradise
RETURN TO PARADISE - DVD MovieIn Malaysia, three young Americans with little else in common are united in a shared enthusiasm for beer, women, and righteous hashish. Eventually, "Sheriff" (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) head back to New York. Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix), a spacey but good-hearted sort, stays on with the notion of helping save the orangutans. Two years later, a brassy lawyer (Anne Heche) shows up in Manhattan with the news that her client, Lewis, has spent the interim in Penang prison. Arrested for a prankish misdemeanor they all shared in, he's taking the rap for something worse: the dope stash they left him holding was a fatal few grams over the limit. Unless his fellow Americans return voluntarily to (literally) share the weight, in eight days Lewis will be hanged as a drug trafficker.
Eight days is about as long as Return to Paradise stayed on theater screens--the victim, perhaps, of Anne Heche-Ellen DeGeneres burnout in the press, or just too damn many movies out there to keep track of. Whatever the reason, it's a pity, because this is one of the most compelling movie-movies in recent memory. The screenplay turns the ethical-psychological thumbscrews with insidious effectiveness, despite the probability that the two writers brought separate agendas to the project--Wesley (Cape Fear) Strick working the complicity of the two home boys (each represents the halving of the other's prison sentence if they both agree to go back), and Bruce (The Killing Fields) Robinson revving his engines for another face-off of implacable East and irresponsible West. And director Joseph Ruben, specialist in serving up B-movie excitement with class-A skill (Dreamscape, The Stepfather), does his sleekest work yet.
But the real news is a trio of career-best performances: Phoenix, harrowing as a child-man whose sanity has been all but eaten away by terror; Vaughn limning a fascinating portrait of a man at war with himself, self-interest and furtive decency seesawing in his conscience; and Heche, part cagey poker player, part angel of mercy, mixing strength, delicacy, and desperation with devastating precision. Oscar blinked, three times. --Richard T. Jameson
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