The Return 2024 HC.DVD9 Magnet
23/48
Odysseus must regain his strength to win back his family and all he has lost
Chronology
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife imprisoned by rival suitors for kingship and his son facing death at their hands. This is the third time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have starred together in a film.
They previously worked together in The English Patient and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
focusing on immersing the audience in the complex pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus as Odysseus returns to Ithaca. The return from active duty, including PTSD and other mental health issues, the reintegration into a previous life, family and society, and the memories and pain endured and caused, and the irreversible internal change that results.
And without the support of each other
The Return features an excellent cast that allows the viewer to experience this rollercoaster ride of two protagonists traveling to remarkable heights, the latter due to both Penelope and Odysseus’ unique and remarkable resilience during this difficult time in their lives. Of course, the two are kept quite distant for much of the build-up, which only makes the catharsis all the more powerful in the film’s more intense, terrifying second half.
The memory of The English Patient is vivid
Fiennes brings his unique style of portraying suffering to this work – an extension of his wonderful talent for portraying parallel pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope, and the viewer can be tricked into feeling and hoping that the two will come together again, just as they were close throughout The English Patient, which Pasolini uses to create added tension in this work.