Eco-hippie Joaquin Phoenix, Harvard golden boy David Conrad, and Brooklyn workaday type Vince Vaughn meet and become instant friends while visiting Malaysia for the purpose of bumming around and getting stoned on cheap hashish. Right after Vaughn and Conrad fly back to New York, the Malaysian police bust Phoenix for carrying enough hash to get him a death sentence. Two years later, attorney Anne Heche comes to New York to convince Vaughn and Conrad to go back to Malaysia; if they accept their share of the responsibility and agree to serve a few years in a Third World prison, Phoenix might not have to die—but they have only eight days to decide. It's a clean and intriguing premise, full of great opportunities to watch the two men struggle with a difficult decision. However, before long, it becomes apparent that Return To Paradise is really about Vaughn's inner struggle and Heche's desperate attempts to appeal to his well-hidden better nature. Although Vaughn and Heche do a decent job in standard roles, the movie bogs itself down with enough silly plot twists and subplots to effectively dilute the viewers' interest: Will one commit to the deal if the other doesn't? Will negative media attention spoil the deal? Will Heche and Vaughn fall in love? These distractions eventually accumulate to the point where they obstruct and ruin what should have been a straightforward movie about human heroism and dignity.