Return to Paradise : Cry your eyes out?

OMG I just finished watching this movie on cableI am a HUGE fan of Joaquin's and he was just ridiculously amazing in thisI cried throughout the whole movie (in all of Joaquin's parts, save the beg. scenes of course, and one or two when people were just talking about him)like 6 or 7 times. and THE sceneu know what I'm talking aboutI just started bawlinglikesobbing uncontrollably with tears just STREAMING down my faceand I just kept sobbing and sobbing for like 20 minutesI don't think I've ever cried that much during a movieor at least that like..intenselyI admit lol that I do cry a lot in movies and when I read books(I even cried during the Village)but, was anyone else this moved by Joaquin's portrayal of Lewis? Did anyone cry as much as I did? I'm just trying to decide if I'm so abnormal in doing so

you are, sorry

I just saw the movie today on Bravo and I had tears streaming down my face too. Such a good movie. Joaquin was just awesome.
"Hamburgers the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast."
-Jules

No, i cried too.
When Sheriff went to see him in his cell, and he was just this rambling mess. i burst into tears.
and when he was at the trial, in that little box rocking back and forth.
and finally, when they dragged him down the hall. I just sobbed.

I love Joaquin. This was definately a masterful performance.

Some people are just born with tragedy in their blood. Donnie Darko

SPOILERS!!

OMG I just saw this movie n i also cried half my body water content away! I will sheepishly admit that i cried for longer during Titanic - but that stupid tear jerking movie pulled it out of me When I cried during this movie I really was feeling the pain! the hope n the hopelessness! broke down when Vince Vaughn entered the court room n absolutely bawled my lungs out when my beautiful Joaquin was hung goddamn he was brilliant!

I saw this movie a couple years ago and also watched on Bravo the other night YES!!!! EVERYTIME I see this movie I BAWL my eyes out! I think this movie is seriously under rated! I cried first when Lewis made that video tape for Sheriff again when he went and saw him in the cell and he tells him that if it were him he wouldnt have comeback and of course during the final scene. I never saw it coming the first time. I really thought the movie was just going to be a moral story about doing the right thing and taking responsibility for your actions and blah blah blah but then wow It took my breath away and I sobbed, and sobbed, and sobbed. This was the movie that got me hooked on Joaquin and I have loved him ever since.

Sometimes in order to find the truth, one must move mountains

No other movie has made me cry this much (and I don't usually cry during movies).
I had a few tears in my eyes during the first shots of Lewis in jail and from that my bawling just got worse and worse till the hanging.
I think this movie is so underrated, you can really feel the characters here. It's just full of great performances.. Vince did great,
and I don't even have words for Joaquin's performance I've never seen anything quite like that. To quite FoolOntheHill42, he really was ridiculously amazing. He should have won something for his role.
I don't know when I'll have the 'guts' to watch the movie again, it's just so painful. When I thought about the scenes at school a day after watching the movie I had a hard time not to cry then.

Just an amazing movie. Strong feelings, great story . and everything.

The only thing I wasn't really feeling was the very ending.. I think Beth should've acted a bit differently (I know that she knew that he found peace and everything. but still). I just got this weird feeling, like a bit let down or something.

I cry every time i see this movie too, especialy at the end when he is being taken out to his execution and that music starts, i cried buckets first time!

Chorley FM, Coming In Your Ears!

I just saw the movie on BRAVO cried so hard! OMG.. my crying could of won an academy award! i was sobbing just crazy, uncontrolable tears.. at one point wailing, until finally screaming repeatedly "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" I was so obnoxious that my dog began barking at me out of confusion and then climbed up onto my face and began licking my tears. I was not expecting to be moved the way i was and JOAQUIN! I love him whole-heartedly.. he is sexy and talented and just wow this movie was amazing!

me too, the ending is painful.

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"Nobody'll rescue you. That's just life"

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Yup. I cried too. I didn't completely, (although I was pretty close) but yeah, it was very hard hitting. I just love Joaquin Phoenix, such an amazing actor. He really blew me away in this. Expecially the video tape he made for them, and when they visit him in the cell and the ending of course. I was really shocked by the ending too. Which, albeit sad, is a good thing.

I saw this movie afew years ago, yet i still remember the feelings i had watching it, so vividly. I have never been so sad, angry or just emotional in any other film i have watched since. I remember being so upset i was in pain, i cried for a full 20 minutes after the end credits.
I havent watched it again since i dont think i need to. Movies like this dont come along very often. Ones that you can watch once years ago and still remember with such intensity and compassion.
I may watch it again someday, but not yet.

Yes, me too - I have never cried so much over a movie. Like I just said in another thread here, I don't think I'll ever watch this movie again. I own a copy of it and everything, but I can't watch it.

I missed the last 1/2 hour of the movie. I thought the deal was if one man came back and went to jail Lewis would not hang.

What changed that caused Lewis to hang after Vaughn's character went to jail?

because, like Ewan McGregor's 'realistic' crying in Moulin Rouge over Satine, Joaquin is a wonderful actor who brings all sorts of life and emotion to every character he played, you could feel yourself there, in the corner, watching him plead and feel sorry for him.he is just amazing.and convincing..and of course his emotion would make u emotional too.

I want to all men!

Didn't cry, but came dang close. And I have NEVER cried during any movie. Not Steel Magnolias, Pearl Harbor, Titanic, Bormoir in LOTR, not any movie. But this one is defiently the closest I have come to crying.

I was a very powerful piece of acting by Joaquin. Probably the best I have seen so far. Absoulty amazing. I mean he made you want to reach through the screen & just hold him & make everything ok for him. Very capavating.

So I didn't cry but it was a very emotional movie. It's defiently the closets I have ever come to crying during a movie. And I hope I never come closer, because if I do, I will bawl my eyes out. And let's just say I have a rep as being cold hearted during movies. And I wouldn't wanna ruin that :P.

Cheers All
~*~Kera~*~

Hail Mary Full of Grace, help me win this stock car race. ~ Ben Mears ~ Salem's Lot

Let's just say my cheeks are now chapped, my eyes are completely bloodshot, I was literally SHAKING during the hanging scene and I came very close to throwing up when I realized they were going to hang him and when they were dragging him to the gallows and he was shouting "I don't want to die! I don't want to die!".

I don't think I've ever cried that hard in a movie. Never has a movie actaully mentally and emotionally moved me so much. After seeing this movie, cheesy tearjerkers like Titanic and Pearl Harbor seem like a waste of time to even watch. This movie just had it. Like someone else said, I felt Joaquin's pain and it was absolutely HEARTBREAKING to see how much the prison had messed up his head in two years. He had pretty much gone crazy by the time Sherrif showed up. Even talking about it is making me depressed. :( From the scene where Sherrif goes to visit him in his cell to the end I was bawling hysterically. This is definately Joaquin's best acting EVER.

"Backyard streaking is hypocritical. It's insincere."
-Inventing The Abbotts

I hope you realize that this amounts to a MAJOR - -M-A-J-O-R- - SPOILER.

Still want to know?

Okay,
=====================
MAJOR SPOILER FOLLOWS
=====================

To make it short, the American reporter (played by JP Smith) jumped the gun with her story, the wire service picked it up and it made the Asian press. The judge was so incensed by the sister leaking the story and making Malaysia look bad that he summarily reversed his decision (in spite of protests by Lewis' sister and Vaughn) and ordered Lewis' execution the next morning.

Remember the arguments earlier in the movie about how efforts by the press to help sometimes did the exact opposite?

I'd rate this as one of the five saddest movies of all time.

Right before they hang Lewis, when Sheriff is making eye contact with him and telling him he's not alone, I was sobbing uncontrollably like a little kid. I was still crying after the credits. Very few movies have affected me like that.

Two of my weakest points: the death penalty and Joaquin Phoenix. So yeah, I cried, a lot. Hell, I cried watching the trailer. Hehe.

I'm totally against the death penalty unless other wordly circumstances that I can't even come up with. I won't even talk about it in school or in Law courses because I get too excited and I lose most of my self control.

So yeah, this movie pushes the buttons of a person like me to perfection and I have to remember it's just a movie. I truly believe it's in the best interest of every pro-death penalty prosecutor out there that I get lazy and back off from Law School. They wouldn't want to face me in court.

OMG Did I ever cry my eyes out this has to be ranked up there as one of the best tear jerkers of all time.

this movie was so good, whats funny is that to me it was so good that I cant stand JP Smith lol not a personal attack on a lady if anything a compliment to her acting in the movie as the reporter who didnt know when to stop and made things worse, i was so upset at what happend in the movie because she couldnt keep her mouth shut that I just hated her so much.

So like i said if anything its a compliment to her and her acting in the movie, if that makes any sense.

No kidding. I cried my eyes out well after the movie was over, lol.

Great film and truly underrated.

holy sh*t! I still can not get over the hanging scene. Sheriff shouting, "Lewis look at me! Look at me! You are not alone!" oh god its hard for me to breathe just writing that. It was amazing. I was crying so hard. I have never gasped for breath while crying ever while watching a movie. I shocked myself at how emotional I got.

I can't get those words out of my head "You are not alone! Look at me!"

Joaquin and Vaughn were superb. Joaquin is always fantastic though. He never lets me down.

The wierd thing is, I saw this movie when it was in the theaters and I don't remember it affecting me so deeply as it did lastnight. Its been about 8 years since I have seen this film, I was about 18 when it was in the theaters and I don't remember at all if I cried or anything. I'm thinking it was so sad that I buried it deep into my subconscious- lol!


What a great film

Phoenix is amazing in all his films but this one WOW! He's more than that. I cried.

IsabelG.

I cryed alotAnd i've only cryed at one other movie in my entire life.

I cried in this movie. I didn't break down & sob but I had a good cry. I was actually more pi$$ed then anything at Jada's character cause it was her fault he was executed.

"That which doesn't kill me better be able to run damn fast!"

This is hilarious I'm dying laughing at your guys' descriptions of watching this. You truly do it justice. LOLOL

OK, I would rather puke twice than cry once, and not only did I cry but I actually bawled in front of none other than MY MOTHER, who will probably now call all her friends and marvel at the fact that her cold-blooded daughter actually wept at a movie. Curse you, Bravo!!

Also, how is it even POSSIBLE that Joaquin wasn't nominated for this?? Lord have mercy, I cried the first time he was on air! That video? KILLING ME! When Vince Vaughn visits him in prison? Oh sweet baby Jesus. That was literally some of the best acting I've ever seen from anybody in any movie, ever. I was absolutely traumatized. I think I need counseling. LOL

If it weren't for the sorry, lame, cheesy, stupid ending I'd still be crying. *beep* writing. Ugh.

I was actually angry at Joaquin after I watched this movie it seems every time I see him in something, he absolutely breaks my heart. Stop draggin' my heart around, J.P.! Why do you hurt me so??

SPOILERS

I also cried during this movie. Now, when you watch a lot of movies you notice patterns in the resolutions of problems. So I knew that by the end of the movie Lewis would have been saved, because that's what happens in movies, right?

Oh. My. God.

I was utterly astounded when they killed him. I really thought up until that last minute that he would be saved.

SPOILER FOR LADDER 49 (another Joaquin movie)





Another Joaquin movie where you just can't stop crying because of the hopelessness. How could they leave him there.

And for those Joaquin fans who havent' yet seen Walk the Line - rent it as fast as you can. He's so intense throughout this movie you think he's going to explode. Amazing.

Everybody seems to have forgotten that Phoenix's carachter bought 100 grams of haschis. Ok, it's quite extreme to sentance someone to death for committing drug-trafficking. How ever, in the U.S im sure that he'd been facing a very long time in jail.

Another thing. Why did the friends return at all? Can't they just inform the court of their part? I mean, the judge didn't even listen to his testimony. He just decided the sentance at once, without concidering the factors behind the crime?

Could it have happened in a court in the West? I wonder

No, that's the point. Malaysia runs a very different court system from the West.

I saw the film back in 2000 just before I moved to Malayaia and was quite shocked by the ending.

Malaysia has a very good legal system and people are only hung only after a lengthly process - what happens in the film is utter rubbish

Another point is that executions these days are not public events and don't take place in the middle of the prison yard. Owing to the negative image it portrays if Malaysia I believe the film was/is banned here.

In the UK soft drugs are not such a big deal but out here you have to respect the local laws and dealing/trafficking carries a mandatory death sentence yet people still risk it!!

So, the film was banned in Malaysia because it 'portrayed Malaysia in a poor light,' so what, Malaysia did a good thing in BANNING IT?

Oh, ok, I see.
Sheesh.

Let's see . . . if Malaysia banned all of the films that showed things happening that were "utter rubbish," how many films would Malaysia show in theatres, again?

On the topic at hand, though, incidentally, for the filming of the scene in the hallway, Joaquin told the "guards" and film crew to be ready because he was going to give it all he had. If I remember correctly, they even got what they needed in 1 take . . . but I'm not 100% on that. I do remember reading that Joaquin was so exhausted after filming that scene, he crashed for quite a while.




"Dream out loud, at high volume." Bono

No, this is the worst movie I have ever seen.

I swear people these days just try crying next to me and I will do a back hand slap right across the face try crying again and I will permanently lock you in my walk in closet. If you keep crying there then I will knock you out

All kidding aside.. some people need to desensitize themselves to 21st century. Crying and fainting is so 18th century.

crying at emotional scenes proves that viewer has heart and feelings..Joaquin was absolutely amazing!!!

Utterly sad film this is. I wish it didn't end that way.

Boycott movies that involve real animal violence (& their directors)