How to make shortest path between two points algorithm faster?

I wrote this algorithm. It works (at least with my short test cases), but takes too long on larger inputs. How can I make it faster?

// Returns an array of length 2 with the two closest points to each other from the
// original array of points "arr"
private static Point2D[] getClosestPair(Point2D[] arr) 
{

    int n = arr.length;

    float min = 1.0f;
    float dist = 0.0f;
    Point2D[] ret = new Point2D[2];

    // If array only has 2 points, return array
    if (n == 2) return arr;

    // Algorithm says to brute force at 3 or lower array items
    if (n <= 3)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < arr.length; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < arr.length; j++)
            {                   
                // If points are identical but the point is not looking 
                // at itself, return because shortest distance is 0 then 
                if (i != j && arr[i].equals(arr[j]))
                {
                    ret[0] = arr[i];
                    ret[1] = arr[j];
                    return ret;                   
                }
                // If points are not the same and current min is larger than
                // current stored distance
                else if (i != j && dist < min)
                {
                    dist = distanceSq(arr[i], arr[j]);
                    ret[0] = arr[i];
                    ret[1] = arr[j];
                    min = dist;
                }        
            }
        }

        return ret;
    }

    int halfN = n/2;

    // Left hand side
    Point2D[] LHS = Arrays.copyOfRange(arr, 0, halfN);
    // Right hand side
    Point2D[] RHS = Arrays.copyOfRange(arr, halfN, n);

    // Result of left recursion
    Point2D[] LRes = getClosestPair(LHS);
    // Result of right recursion
    Point2D[] RRes = getClosestPair(RHS);

    float LDist = distanceSq(LRes[0], LRes[1]);
    float RDist = distanceSq(RRes[0], RRes[1]);

    // Calculate minimum of both recursive results
    if (LDist > RDist)
    {
        min = RDist;
        ret[0] = RRes[0];
        ret[1] = RRes[1];
    }
    else
    {
        min = LDist;
        ret[0] = LRes[0];
        ret[1] = LRes[1];       
    }


    for (Point2D q : LHS)
    {
        // If q is close to the median line
        if ((halfN - q.getX()) < min)
        {
            for (Point2D p : RHS)
            {
                // If p is close to q
                if ((p.getX() - q.getX()) < min)
                {               
                    dist = distanceSq(q, p);        
                    if (!q.equals(p) && dist < min)
                    {
                        min = dist;
                        ret[0] = q;
                        ret[1] = p;
                    }

                }

            }
        }
    }

    return ret;
}

private static float distanceSq(Point2D p1, Point2D p2)
{
    return (float)Math.pow((p1.getX() - p2.getX()) + (p1.getY() - p2.getY()), 2);
}

I am loosely following the algorithm explained here: http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~cs251/ClosestPair/ClosestPairDQ.html

and a different resource with pseudocode here:

http://i.imgur.com/XYDTfBl.png

I cannot change the return type of the function, or add any new arguments.

Thanks for any help!