"Return to Paradise" presents the kind of moral dilemma that might be presented in hypothetical form in an ethics class. Would you go to prison in another country for years, in order to save a friend from death, if you weren't being forced to? The problem for the characters in this film, of course, is that the question is not hypothetical, and that makes the answer all the more impossible.
The movie opens in Panang, Malaysia, where 3 friends, Sheriff (Vince Vaughn), Tony (David Conrad) and Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) are enjoying a lengthy stay overseas, viewing all their activities through a casual, day to day haze of drugs. "We've got it all here," Sheriff says, describing the warm ocean water as "God's own bathtub." Eventually, months later, Tony and Sheriff decide to head back stateside to pick up where they left off. Lewis, however, remains behind, planning to join an effort to free apes from captivity.
Through a series of events, Lewis is arrested for drug possession after police discover him with 100 kilos of hashish that the 3 men had purchased. He is charged with drug trafficking, a capital crime in Malaysia, and is sentenced to death by hanging. After two years in prison his last appeal has just been rejected and he is within a week of his sentence being carried out.
The other two men were unaware of this, but Lewis's attorney, Beth (Anne Heche) approaches the men with the news of Lewis's situation. She has forged a deal with the Malaysian authorities: if at least one of the two others will return with her to Malaysia and accept their share of ownership of the hashish, Lewis will not have to die. The prison term for both men returning would be three years. If only one returns, he will have to serve six.
Both men react with predictable astonishment and some resentment at being forced to make such a choice. It is Sheriff in particular who has the hardest time with it. At first, Tony is willing to go back if Sheriff does, but the question is whether Sheriff can be compelled to return. He feels, not unreasonably, that their crime was a small one and that this degree of punishment is not warranted.
But Lewis's crime is no greater, and he will die for it if neither of them returns. "I feel guilty even asking you to do this," he says in a videotaped statement. Certainly he doesn't deserve to die. But whether or not either or both of the men can rise to the occasion is something the film explores in depth. The movie doesn't break it into simple issues of morality, but looks deeper than that. What about the health and welfare of the one(s) who chose to return? Can they handle themselves in a Third World prison system? What about Tony's fiance and the fact that she'll have to wait for him, essentially putting her on life on hold as well?
Although Vaughn and Conrad play the men with the impossible decision to make, Heche is the one whose performance carries the film. She doggedly appeals to both men's sense of morality, and there is a possibility that she may go too far sometimes in her methods. The film doesn't paint her as a heroine but as a woman willing to do almost anything to save Lewis's life, and perhaps will cross lines even she can't fully appreciate. Eventually, when an attraction develops between her and Sheriff, she is able to stay her course and not back down in the face of love from what she feels very strongly to be right. In the midst of it all, a journalist determined to get the story has it explained to her by Heche why each picture and article extolling the injustices of the Malaysian court system would be "a death warrant", as tilting favor even a little way against the Malaysian standpoint would provoke swift and dangerous action by the government.
Is the Malaysian position in this just? We're left to decide that for ourselves. It would be easy to view their laws against drugs as extreme, but as a Malaysian judge points out, their streets are clean, and their youth protected. He fails to understand, he says, why American drug laws are so lenient as to be virtually ineffective in stemming the influx of narcotics. Looking at the face of addiction and the widespread criminal activity inspired by it in the U.S. today, it is hard to argue with him. The ideal solution might lie somewhere in between, but if so, nobody seems to have found it yet.
The movie is determined to be evenhanded in its position on all of this, and firmly leaves the audience to decide what is right. This leaves us in suspense about exactly what choices the characters will make, and what the end result will be. Movies like this can be a real treat because of how they force you to think about the issues they present, and in the end, if given the decision that Tony and Sheriff had to make, I can honestly say I would not have an answer.
The movie opens in Panang, Malaysia, where 3 friends, Sheriff (Vince Vaughn), Tony (David Conrad) and Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) are enjoying a lengthy stay overseas, viewing all their activities through a casual, day to day haze of drugs. "We've got it all here," Sheriff says, describing the warm ocean water as "God's own bathtub." Eventually, months later, Tony and Sheriff decide to head back stateside to pick up where they left off. Lewis, however, remains behind, planning to join an effort to free apes from captivity.
Through a series of events, Lewis is arrested for drug possession after police discover him with 100 kilos of hashish that the 3 men had purchased. He is charged with drug trafficking, a capital crime in Malaysia, and is sentenced to death by hanging. After two years in prison his last appeal has just been rejected and he is within a week of his sentence being carried out.
The other two men were unaware of this, but Lewis's attorney, Beth (Anne Heche) approaches the men with the news of Lewis's situation. She has forged a deal with the Malaysian authorities: if at least one of the two others will return with her to Malaysia and accept their share of ownership of the hashish, Lewis will not have to die. The prison term for both men returning would be three years. If only one returns, he will have to serve six.
Both men react with predictable astonishment and some resentment at being forced to make such a choice. It is Sheriff in particular who has the hardest time with it. At first, Tony is willing to go back if Sheriff does, but the question is whether Sheriff can be compelled to return. He feels, not unreasonably, that their crime was a small one and that this degree of punishment is not warranted.
But Lewis's crime is no greater, and he will die for it if neither of them returns. "I feel guilty even asking you to do this," he says in a videotaped statement. Certainly he doesn't deserve to die. But whether or not either or both of the men can rise to the occasion is something the film explores in depth. The movie doesn't break it into simple issues of morality, but looks deeper than that. What about the health and welfare of the one(s) who chose to return? Can they handle themselves in a Third World prison system? What about Tony's fiance and the fact that she'll have to wait for him, essentially putting her on life on hold as well?
Although Vaughn and Conrad play the men with the impossible decision to make, Heche is the one whose performance carries the film. She doggedly appeals to both men's sense of morality, and there is a possibility that she may go too far sometimes in her methods. The film doesn't paint her as a heroine but as a woman willing to do almost anything to save Lewis's life, and perhaps will cross lines even she can't fully appreciate. Eventually, when an attraction develops between her and Sheriff, she is able to stay her course and not back down in the face of love from what she feels very strongly to be right. In the midst of it all, a journalist determined to get the story has it explained to her by Heche why each picture and article extolling the injustices of the Malaysian court system would be "a death warrant", as tilting favor even a little way against the Malaysian standpoint would provoke swift and dangerous action by the government.
Is the Malaysian position in this just? We're left to decide that for ourselves. It would be easy to view their laws against drugs as extreme, but as a Malaysian judge points out, their streets are clean, and their youth protected. He fails to understand, he says, why American drug laws are so lenient as to be virtually ineffective in stemming the influx of narcotics. Looking at the face of addiction and the widespread criminal activity inspired by it in the U.S. today, it is hard to argue with him. The ideal solution might lie somewhere in between, but if so, nobody seems to have found it yet.
The movie is determined to be evenhanded in its position on all of this, and firmly leaves the audience to decide what is right. This leaves us in suspense about exactly what choices the characters will make, and what the end result will be. Movies like this can be a real treat because of how they force you to think about the issues they present, and in the end, if given the decision that Tony and Sheriff had to make, I can honestly say I would not have an answer.