Susan Granger's review of "RETURN TO PARADISE" (Polygram Pictures)
This intensely involving drama presents a stunning moral dilemma. The story begins with three twenty-something American men cavorting carelessly in sun-drenched Malaysia, enjoying the rum, girls, and cheap hash. Originally strangers who met while touring Asia, they've spent a month in paradise, free from responsibilities and inhibitions. When their vacation ends, two head back to Manhattan while the third decides to remain inPenang as a "Save the Orangutans" volunteer. Skip ahead two years - and a lawyer (Anne Heche) tracks the New Yorkers down. One (Vince Vaughn) is working as a limousine driver, while the other (David Conrad) is a structural engineer, engaged to be married. She tells them that their buddy (Jo= aquin Phoenix) has been in jail for the past two years after their discarded and forgotten hash was discovered in a trash barrel. Under Malaysian law, the stash was large enough to qualify him as a drug dealer, a crime for which there is a mandatory death sentence. All three are culpable buthe will be executed in eight days unless the pair return to Malaysia, confess their responsibility, and volunteer to join him in serving out a stiff prison term. Meanwhile, the media threatens to break the story, further jeopardizing an already precarious situation. The crisis-of-consciencetheme is superbly developed by writers Bruce Robinson & Wesley Strick and realized by director Joseph Ruben. Anne Heche is the hot-wire here. Her waifish sensuality sparkles yet she never loses her downright determined edge. She is a stunning actress. Vince Vaughn and David Conrad wrestle with cynicism and decency, while Joaquin Phoenix delicately etches the sensitive idealist. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Return to Paradise" is a powerful, compelling 9, provoking the question: What would you do in similar circumstances?
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