Three young men meet up in Malaysia and have such a ball that it's only a matter of time before fate intervenes. Sheriff (Vince Vaughn) and Tony (David Conrad) fly back to New York, leaving behind the sweetly spaced-out Lewis (Joaquin Phoenix) and, more important, a stash of hash. Two years later, Sheriff learns that Lewis was arrested in possession of the drugs and sentenced to death; only if the other two return to Malaysia and share the sentence-three years each in a hellhole-will their friend be allowed to live. It's a sharp hook for any plot, but Joseph Ruben's movie, written by Bruce Robinson and Wesley Strick, spends so long skewering us on the ethical predicament-How much should we suffer for the sake of others?-that pretty soon all you want is for Sheriff and Tony to make up their damn minds. One further complication: Lewis's lawyer, Beth (Anne Heche), falls in love with Sheriff while begging him to go to jail. The result of all this is a sort of primer on current American moviemaking: it starts off hip and loose, lightened by the presence of its young indie stars, but slowly seizes up into mainstream melodrama. The best reason to stay with it is Vaughn, whose lanky wryness wards off the threat of pomposity. The worst reason is Jada Pinkett Smith, who gets stuck with a thankless role as the unwittingly lethal villain-a newspaper journalist, of course.