Buy it... if you can't pull yourself away from lovely, exotic woodwind and percussion performances that contribute to one of Mark Mancina's most intoxicating dramatic scores.

Avoid it... if you expect a dramatic intensity in the non-thematic cues to match the thought-provoking nature of the film's character dilemma.

Mancina

Return to Paradise: (Mark Mancina) If you were tentative about taking a vacation to East Asia in the 1990's, then Hollywood wasn't making you feel any better about the prospect. Among a rash of films depicting Westerners given unreasonable prison sentences for small crimes (earned or not), Joseph Ruben's Return to Paradise was among the more thought-provoking. Three young men take a vacation to Malaysia and the one who stays a bit longer for a Greenpeace event is arrested for drugs and eventually sentenced to death. The other two return to New York and carry on normal lives until the prisoner's attorney arrives from Malaysia two years later in the form of Anne Heche and gives the two men the option of saving their friend's life in return for serving prison sentences themselves. The film is a mixture of exotic pleasure, modern American lifestyles, and an emotionally powerful dilemma that is resolved in an unexpected and tragic way. Regardless of the film's examination of morals and its obvious statement about Malaysian courts, the gorgeous location inspired much of the crew in its effort to define the kind of beauty that stings. Composer Mark Mancina had broken away from dependence on Hans Zimmer's Media Ventures and engaged in his own successful career in the mid-1990's, but his assignments were typically limited to dumb blockbuster action or time-wasting comedies. This situation would change with Moll Flanders and Return to Paradise, though the first of two suffered from a budget that forced Mancina to rely almost exclusively on synthesizers to render a composition that begged for an orchestral recording. For Return to Paradise, the composer gets the best of both worlds, infusing his gritty electronic writing with expansive and dramatic orchestral ideas, along with occasionally mesmerizing solo performances, especially on woodwinds. Addressing both the beauty of the location and weight of the decisions that need to be made by the story's characters, Mancina's title theme for Return to Paradise is an intoxicating highlight of his entire career. While only three major performances of the theme exist on album, the dozen minutes of this material are worthy every penny.

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In these regards, the Return to Paradise score and album have the same effect as Mancina's late 2001 score for Domestic Disturbance. Both offer themes and renderings reminiscent of another work (Return to Paradise is a descendent of Zimmer's Beyond Rangoon while Domestic Disturbance is a descendent of Jerry Goldsmith's Basic Instinct), and these similarities in style may bother some listeners. But in both cases, you're rewarded with significantly relaxing music early on the two albums if you can look past the obvious inspiration for the styles. The repeating presentation of the theme and an emphasis on interesting percussion and woodwind solos is a binding characteristic of the two. In Return to Paradise, the cues "Looking at You" (the evolution of the love affair near the end of the film) and the suite "Return to Paradise" are stunners, lifted by Fred Selden's performances on exotic and traditional wind instruments. Mancina's use of the exotic sounds suffices for the purposes of the film, but doesn't break any new ground. The score's weakness is its return to an industrial metal sound for the New York scenes; this material is perhaps more consistent with Harry Gregson-Williams' career at the time, and none of it lasts long enough or receives any overarching development to warrant any interest. Early scenes relating to "God's Bathtub" are given pleasant, but non-committal synthetic meandering, and music involving the prison itself is surprisingly subdued as well. The title theme is adapted to keyboard for the love affair between Heche's character and Vince Vaughn's role as one of the friends, though the cues "Desperate Lovers" and "I'll Miss You" somewhat understate the attachment. Scenes of suspense are given nearly the silent treatment, including "Godless Place" and "Arriving in Malaysia," though "The Hanging" is a necessary explosion of high dissonance. An occasional synthetic choir, as in "Second Call," creates an appropriately numbing atmosphere. Overall, the score is adequate at every moment, but rarely interesting outside of the few major thematic statements. Luckily, these elaborations on the theme are lengthy. Their beauty may be somewhat generic and lacking in intensity, but at some point, the rendering is so lovely that you can't pull yourself away. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Mark Mancina reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.1 (in 10 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.08 (in 7,086 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.