Return to Paradise

Released 1998
Stars Vince Vaughn, David Conrad, Joaquin Phoenix, Anne Heche, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Anna Kathryn Holbrook
Director Joseph Ruben

Consider this situation: what if, by surrendering yourself to foreign authorities and agreeing to spend three years in a prison hellhole, you could save the life of a friend? That admittedly- fascinating dilemma lies at the heart of Joseph Ruben's new morality play, Return to Paradise, a U.S. remake of the 1989 French feature, Force Majeure. And, while there are times when this movie gets bogged down in melodramatic cliches, it nevertheless represents an intriguing exploration of conscience, friendship, and sacrifice.

Return to Paradise opens during the mid-'90s in Malaysia, where three friends, Sheriff (Vince Vaughn), Tony (David Conrad), and Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix), are spending a five-week vacation sampling the pleasures of "God's own bathtub": rum, drugs, and girls. At the end of their stay, Sheriff and Tony head back to New York, but Lewis, a Greenpeace activist, decides to stay behind to participate in a "Rescue the Orangutan" project. As a result, Lewis is there alone when a police raid uncovers a brick of hash that sends him to jail with a death sentence hanging over his neck.

Two years in the future, a young, persistent lawyer, Beth Eastern (Anne Heche), tracks down Sheriff and Tony to apprise them of the situation. Lewis is a week away from the hangman's noose, and the only thing that will save him is if his two accomplices agree to return with her to Malaysia, turn themselves in, and spend a term in prison. If one of them goes, it's six years. If both of them go, it's three apiece. If they refuse, Lewis dies. The dilemma for both men, who have established lives in New York City, is clear.

Summary written by Kenneth Chisholm