The Return (2024)
Directed by: Uberto Pasolini
Premise: Adapted from Homer’s The Odyssey. Years after the Trojan War, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) returns to his home country of Ithica where his wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) awaits. Ithica is overrun by suitors who believe Odysseus is dead and want to marry Penelope.
What Works: The Return adapts the latter sections of The Odyssey and the filmmakers use the premise to dramatize the experience of soldiers coming home from war. In this film, Odysseus has been away for years after serving in the Trojan War but all the young men from Ithica who followed him into combat have died and Odysseus is gripped by shame. Odysseus is one of the great heroes of Western storytelling but The Return has a different interpretation of this warrior character than we typically get from mainstream films. Instead of coming home the confident and conquering hero, Odysseus is broken and must recover his sense of self before the vicious suitors murder his son and take over the island. The weight of Odysseus’ guilt is profound and evident throughout Ralph Fiennes’ performance. Fiennes brings a lot of physicality to the part and he looks like a grizzled warrior but grief and guilt are visible in Fiennes’ posture and face. This is a fascinating performance in a variety of ways but especially how the film deals with Odysseus’ masculinity and the way violence is part of his identity. The other impressive performance of The Return is Juliette Binoche as Penelope. She fends off suitors but she also feels abandoned by her husband. Penelope is the home front spouse who doesn’t quite understand what her soldiering husband has been through and their reconciliation is played beautifully by both actors. The Return has an effective naturalistic style. Although the film is adapted from a mythological story, it has a human scale and the setting is vivid and convincing.
What Doesn’t: The weakest element of The Return is Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. Telemachus is rather whinny and he acts much younger than he looks which creates a strange disconnect in Charlie Plummer’s performance. Plummer seems a bit lost, which suits the character, but Telemachus doesn’t really have a story of his own. For a bit, Telemachus and Odysseus join together and go on the run from the would-be usurpers but this portion of the story stops almost as quickly as it starts and without much meaningful character or story developments. This is indicative of The Return’s trouble with pacing which tends to be start and stop. The film lacks dramatic momentum.
Bottom Line: The Return impresses with its thoughtful approach to the story of Odysseus and the way it uses that material to explore the experience of soldiers returning from war. The filmmakers struggle with the pacing but there’s quite a lot in the film to recommend it especially the performances by Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
Episode: #1027 (December 15, 2024)