Return to Paradise (R)

Ask yourself…what would you do?

After spending a legendary summer together partying, drinking, chasing girls, and smoking pot on a breathtaking beach in Malaysia, two friends, Sheriff (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) reluctantly return to the humdrum of everyday life in New York while Lewis, (Joaquin Phoenix) the hippie of the trio, makes plans to venture to Borneo to work at an Orangutan rescue.

Two years pass and Sheriff, now a limousine driver in New York, encounters a mysterious woman named Beth (Anne Heche) an attorney who drops a bombshell when she abruptly advises him that the day they left Malaysia, the authorities were dispatched to the beach house they shared in search of a missing rental bike (one that Sheriff had tossed off a cliff days before they left) and discovered a large amount of marijuana the trio had been smoking.  While life for Sheriff and Tony has gone on, Lewis has spent the past two years languishing in a horrible third-world prison. His ordeal will end in eight days – when he is to be put to death as a drug trafficker – unless Sheriff and Tony return to accept their share of the drugs…and the responsibility.

The deal is simple: if each man returns they will each get three years. If only one goes back, he will get six years.  If neither goes back, Lewis will be hung.  Beth then tracks down Tony (who is engaged and working as a successful architect) and informs him of the situation.

What would you do?

Tony would be forced to give up a promising career and the start of a family.  For Sheriff, the decision is different.  He lives in a tiny apartment, ironically not much bigger than a prison cell, and is consumed with a dead-end menial job that he hates.  He also forged a much closer relationship with Lewis, even contemplating traveling to Borneo with him to work at the rescue.  Sheriff also has feelings of guilt due to the fact that it was he who tossed the bike away, thus bringing the authorities to the drugs and is developing a deeper relationship with the mysterious Beth, who may or may not have an ulterior motive.

The mind-wrestling question is raised…would you return to save the life of a friend?  Keeping in mind (as the opening montage reveals) that while the three did form a close bond they were not lifelong friends and had just met at the start of the summer.  There is no right or wrong answer.  A plethora of arguments and justifications can be made for either decision.

As Sheriff and Tony wrestle with the situation and the choice that each may make, they also find themselves up against the clock, as time is quickly running out on Lewis.

“Return to Paradise” will keep your mind racing and your pulse pounding as you follow the cast of easily relatable and likeable characters and will question each decision and thought they have, as well as your own, throughout the movie.  Vince Vaughn, known more for his frat boy type comedies proves he’s a great dramatic actor as the typical everyman Sheriff and Joaquin Phoenix delivers as he always does.

Think about it…what would you do?

– by Matt Christopher