Review: Return to Paradise 9/04/98
Would you give up three years of your life to save a close friend's life? This is the moral dilemma placed before Sheriff (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) in Return To Paradise.
Two years previous Sheriff, Tony, and Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) are three young guys that meet by coincidences unexplained, in Malaysia. They become best of friends and live together for five weeks partying and having a great time. Finally, Tony and Sheriff decide they have to get back to the states, they exchange good-byes and go back to their humdrum lives in the states.
Two years later, they find out, that Lewis, who stayed in Malaysia to work on environmental projects, was arrested the day after their departure. It seems that the police had come to their house in search of a missing bike, and instead found a block of hash. Due to the amount of weed found, Lewis is charged with trafficking and sentenced to be hanged.
After two years of appeals, in desperation, Lewis sends his lawyer Beth Eastern (Anne Heche) to attempt to persuade his two friends to return to Malaysia and accept responsibility for their portions of the pot. If they both return, Lewis' life will be spared and they will both be given three years and if only one returns he will get six years imprisonment.
The film mostly follows Sheriff, now a limousine driver in NYC, as he tries to decide if he should return and give up his freedom. Also featured is Jada Pinkett in a small role as an ambitious and deceitful newspaper reporter, named M.J.
Return to Paradise is beautifully directed by Joseph Ruben, whose previous work includes "The Good Son". He does a great job of keeping the pace of the film, and doesn't let up near the end, but unleashes several great plot twist. The script is suspenseful, and was tightly written by Wesley Strick and Bruce Robinson, with lots of great dialog.
This is a very powerful, intelligent, and thought provoking film. It contains great performances by Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche. I was especially impressed by Heche's performance, as it is so much stronger than all her previous roles.
It is rare, in the summer, to find a movie that makes the audience think. This one does. There wasn't one person who didn't leave the theater, who wasn't thinking to themselves, "Would I do this for my friend." As for the answer, they probably will have a of hard time with it as these characters did.
Grade: A
----------------- Ryan Davis rjdavis@ezy.net
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