The Return
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche weep together in sorrow and longing in the untimely return of the legendary Odysseus who may not be the hero that everyone thinks he is.
This take on the final chapters of Homer’s Odyssey from Uberto Pasolini is a small-scale swords and sandals drama that is more about the sandals than the swords as it trades the epic wrath of the Gods grandeur for an intimate love story about the war-veteran husband struggling to face his wife after ten years apart. The legend of the brave and noble Odysseus (Fiennes) and his victory at Troy is an epic and triumphant myth story for the people of Ithaca, but when real Odysseus washes up on the shores of his homeland no one is prepared to learn about the horrors that he has endured and committed for the sake of honour. His kingdom on Ithaca has become poverty-stricken since the absence of its ruler and the island is now overrun by savage male suitors yearning for the hand of the lonesome Queen Penelope (Binoche) and her throne, which will lead to bloodthirsty competition and danger for the Prince Telemachus (Charlie Plummer).
The Return is small in scale and on budget and even has an overbearing televisual look that would be fitting for a Sky Atlantic miniseries, but director Pasolini manages to move the weight of picture through a delicate and focused script that is all the more enriched by the sensitive and soulful performances of Fiennes and Binoche. It’s like a timeless PTSD story where the wife is trying to understand her husband's traumatised state, and while it has its faults, The Return becomes undeniably magnetic when Fiennes and Binoche are on screen together. Binoche has a scene where her face and eyes mean everything and there is so much nuanced and complex emotion involved in this single moment when she may be finally looking into the eyes of her estranged husband again. Through their fragile and embittered performances Fiennes and Binoche manage to elevate the rough edges of the picture to a much more heartfelt experience. Charlie Plummer has the less impressionable role as a winey and proud Telemachus who seeks to rid his land of the suitors as he loses patience with his mother’s insistent passive behaviour. It may be more fitting for his role, but Plummer just lacks the tortured and aged charisma that Fiennes and Binoche emote so perfectly.
That is not to say that there is no action whatsoever in the Return, in fact Fiennes gets to flex some unbelievable bulging muscles and veins that would give Steve Reeves a run for his money, and there are enough bloody deaths and fights ahead yet they are reservedly subdued bearing more remorse than triumph. For Odysseus to claim back his home, he is forced to prove his unmatched skill as a warrior, yet this Odysseus is so haunted by death that he fears to reveal what kind of man he has become to his wife and son. Penelope spends most of her time working on her loom as she weaves a garment for her grandfather, yet this is more of a distraction to count the days for Odysseus return. Pasolini shoots this loom with poetic fades and cross cutting that almost emanate the passage of time itself as well as Penelope’s own aching soul. The very mention of any of the Gods is still missing, and you may long for some more flashy set pieces, but the main intentions of the film are to ground the myths into a domesticated tragedy, that being said Pasolini saves the best and most intensely thrilling moments till last, and rest assured it is worth the wait.
The Return may not be the most astounding ancient Greek picture you will see, and obviously Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey remains to be seen in a years’ time, but for what it is the Return is an honourably Shakespearean tragedy that draws us into the emotional and psychological wounds of Odysseus and Penelope estranged and scarred relationship through the wonderful reunion of Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
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