RETURN TO PARADISE
1998

December 17, 2000

Showtime

Vince Vaughn. Anne Heche. Joaquin Phoenix. Jada Pinkett Smith.

Two American men, who discover that their friend is about to be executed for drug offenses in Malaysia, have to choose between letting him die or returning to testify, and facing possible imprisonment themselves.

This film was much better than I expected. Young people forced to decide something on a huge moral scale. Do they sacrifice the next three years of their lives for a guy that was really no more than an acquaintance? Could they live with themselves if their buddy was killed because of the two of them? These ideas don't come up every day in movies. A romance between Heche and Vaughn is unneccesary but makes everyone's agenda a bit murkier. Vaughn is fantastic as a going-nowhere guy facing a decision that none of us would want.