Return to Paradise

Director: Joseph Ruben Joseph Ruben

Overview

This remake of Force Majeure (aka Uncontrollable Circumstances), a 1989 film with Alan Bates and Kristin Scott Thomas, recalls the prison plight depicted in Midnight Express (1978). Rambling around Asia, getting high and just having a good time, are three young men -- Sheriff (Vince Vaughn), Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix), and Tony (David Conrad). Sheriff and Tony say goodbye to Lewis, a conscientious Greenpeace activist and nature-lover who stays on to rescue endangered Borneo orangutans. Two years later, Tony is an architect about to marry, and Sheriff has a job driving a limo around New York City. When Beth (Anne Heche) steps into Sheriff's limo, she tells him that she's a lawyer working to save Lewis. He learns that Lewis was arrested by Malaysian authorities, tried as a drug dealer, convicted, and sentenced to death. Sheriff's actions of trashing a borrowed bicycle and casually disposing of 100 grams of hash make him responsible for Lewis's predicament, but does he feel guilty enough to get involved? The execution is only eight days away, but it will not happen if Tony and/or Sheriff return to also serve time -- three years each if both come back, but six years if only one returns. Investigating this story is reporter M.J. Major (Jada Pinkett Smith), who views the situation as an important international news story. Tony readily agrees to go back and save Lewis -- but only if Sheriff also returns with him. Sheriff initially declines, prompting the desperate Beth to find ways to convince him to go. Complicating matters, Sheriff and Beth begin to find they are attracted to each other. Director Joseph Ruben filmed in Hong Kong, Macao, and Thailand, with Malaysian prison interiors shot in Philadelphia.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/05/2002
UPC:	0025192280023
Original Release:	1998
Rating:	R
Source:	Universal Studios
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Full Frame, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:52:00
Sales rank:	40,011

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Vince Vaughn	Sheriff
Anne Heche	Beth
Joaquin Phoenix	Lewis
Jada Pinkett Smith	M.J. Major
David Conrad	Tony
Vera Farmiga	Kerrie
Nick Sandow	Ravitch
Ming Lee	Actor
Joel de la Fuente	Actor
Richard Chang	Actor
James Michael McCauley	Actor,l'avocat célèbre
Brettanya Friese	Actor
Deanna Yusoff	Actor
Brette Taylor	la jeune femme dans la limousine
David Zayas	le chef de chantier
Amy Wong	la guichetière
Ed Hodson	le rédacteur
Kevin Scullin	un portier
Curzon Dobell	Actor
Patrick Teoh	Actor
Jada Pinkett-Smith	Actor
Mark Mancina	Composer

Technical Credits

Wesley Strick

Bruce Robinson

Pierre Jolivet

Olivier Schatzky

Joseph Ruben	Director
Wesley Strick	Screenwriter
Bruce Robinson	Screenwriter
David Arnold	Executive Producer
Alain Bernheim	Producer
Kathleen Chopin	Casting
Steve Golin	Producer
Ezra Swerdlow	Executive Producer
Pierre Jolivet	Screenwriter
Olivier Schatzky	Screenwriter
Lashan Browning	Producer
Craig Barron	Special Effects
Bobby Johanson	Sound Effects
Richard King	Sound Effects
Keith Campbell	Stunts
Jimmy Roberts	Stunts
James W. Finnerty	Key Grip
Kevin Lee	Sound Editor
William Sarokin	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Although it's hardly up to the level of the superlative Midnight Express, Return to Paradise offers a well-oiled Hollywood take on the venerable foreign-prisons-are-hell genre (see also: Papillon, Brokedown Palace). The script, by Batman Returns scribe Wesley Strick and Jennifer 8 writer/director Bruce Robinson, pushes all the correct, crowd-pleasing emotional buttons. Chief victim Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) is a lovable Greenpeace activist. Reluctant savior Sheriff (Vince Vaughn) must abandon a tentative romance with lawyer Beth (Anne Heche) if he wants to save his former buddy's life. And reporter M.J. (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a plucky professional whose newshound instincts nevertheless have unexpected and negative repercussions. That all of these well-worn emotional arcs resolve into anything but a treacly mess is the result of fine performances from all involved. Credit also goes to director Joseph Ruben -- previously known for the uninspired work-for-hire of Sleeping With the Enemy -- whose low-key realism and moments of melancholy add distinction to the proceedings. Return to Paradise is never less than watchable.