With
Return to Paradise,
Mark Mancina weaves together a series of disparate elements -- traditional Malaysian music, lush symphonics and industrial-strength electronics among them -- to create a surprisingly cogent and compelling score of uncommon tenderness. Although
Mancina writes music specific to the film's primary settings of New York City and Borneo,
Return to Paradise never feels fragmented, thanks in large part to its seamless thematic unity as well as its unusually vivid evocations of time and place -- "The Prison" is a stark portrait of the alienation wrought by incarceration, while "Desperate Lovers" beautifully conveys the emotional intensity of star-crossed romance. ~ Jason Ankeny