Return To Paradise is a moral dilemma drama regarding three friends, some drugs, and a prison term-it’s a film that’s edged with light touches of romance & thriller tropes. This late 1990s film features a couple of great performances, some moody landscape cinematography, and more than a little food for thought. Here from Imprint is a recent Blu- Ray release of the film- taking in a 4k scan of the picture, and a selection of new/ archive interviews.

Return To Paradise is from the year 1998- it was directed by Briarcliff, New York-born Joseph Ruben. To date he has fifteen feature-length credits to his name- these went from romantic teen comedy The Pom Pom Girls (1976), Jewish summer camp set slapstick comedy Gorp (1980), fantasy/horror/ action crossbreed Dreamscape (1984), drama-thriller Sleeping With The Enemy (1991), sci-fi mystery The Forgotten (2004), and WWI Set drama The Ottoman Lieutenant (2017).

The film opens in Malaysia, where three twenty-something American buddies are having a high time sleeping around, taking drugs, and generally taking risks. We have the cocky & brash Sheriff( Vince Vaugh), more thoughtful & animal-loving Lewis(Joaquin Phoenix), and low-key/ if still mischievous Tony(David Conrad). One day while out and about in rural Malaysia the three crash the bike they’ve just hired. Lewis wants to return it to its renter, but Sheriff can’t be bothered- so just throws it over a cliff, and this sets off a chain reaction of events that lands up with Lewis getting arrested- as his two pals have head back to the states.

We jump forward two years to New York City- Sheriff is working as a chauffeur, just about making ends meet and living in a tiny department. Tony is doing better for himself, as a building contractor- and is due to get married to the rather highly strung Kerrie- Vera Farmiga in one of her early roles before she became more known due to The Conjuring franchise.

One night Sheriff picks up a new client from a hotel, the rather mysterious blond Beth (Anne Heche), who seems to know a fair bit about it. She shortly reveals she is Lewis's Lawyer, and is in the US to convince him & Tony go back to Malaysia. As, after being in prison for the last two years, Lewis is due to be hung for his crimes(basically being in possession of an amount of hashish)- and the only way to stop this is that both Sheriff & Tony sever three years each, or one of them severs six years in prison.

The film runs around ten minutes under the two-hour mark. With say three-quarters of the film set in the states while we have a moral dilemma/ will-they won’t-they go back meat of the film. During this period, we get fleeting glances of poor Lewis, who as you imagine is not having a very good time. 

So much of the film is centred around Sheriff, Tony, and Beth. Vaugh is excellent as the rather obnoxious/ looking after number one Sheriff, Heche is ok as Lewis’s savour- though at times is a little flat & pouty, and Conrad is somewhat bland, though he doesn’t get a terrible amount of screentime- so, as a result, the Tony character is a little one dimensional.

When we finally get back to Malaysia- we of course get to see Phoenix, and he is great/ putting his all into the way out of his depth Lewis. We get a rather unbelievable/ crowbarred in romance, and journalists sniffing around plot lines- neither really hit home. And ultimately the pacing of the film is uneven, and at points really does seem to lag.  

Return To Paradise certainly raises some interesting & thought-provoking issues. The whole thing is well enough scoped, and there is some great acting on display. It’s just a pity the runtime couldn’t have been cut down/ tighten up more- and maybe some of the lead actors could have been replaced/ given a bit more to work with. So as result it’s rewarding, if flawed/ uneven film- which by rights should be better than what it is.

Onto this new Blu-Ray, and the film is given a nice & clean 4k scan. On the extras side we get two new things- Force Majeure: Directing Return to Paradise (28.10) which is an audio-only interview with director Joseph Ruben- this is played out over a selection of footage from the film, which includes plot spoilers- so best not to play this before watching the film. He moves from talking about how the film was based on a French film Force Majeure- which was rewritten for this adaptation. Moving on he chats about how the casting, production & filming came together. Next is A Godless Place: Scoring Return to Paradise(11.33) which is with the film's composer Mark Mancina- he touches on his previous soundtrack work, before moving on to the score for the film to hand- which he says was quite different from what he’d done before. We get two archive interviews- one with Vince Vaughn & Anne Heche together (4.18), and one with Joaquin Phoenix on his own (7.15). Both the new & archive interviews are well worth a play-through.

There is no doubt that Return To Paradise is a well-made & mostly well-acted film, it’s just a pity the pacing of the whole thing couldn’t have been pulled together a bit more. As I feel both the points it’s making & the performances would have shined so much more. If you enjoy moral dilemma-based drama, it’s certainly a film you’ll be interested in, and what better way to see it in this new Imprint release.