46/18
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca to find his wife held captive by suitors who want to become king, and his son facing death at their hands. To reclaim his family and all that he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength… Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche star in this film together for the third time, having previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can people find their way to war but not their way home? Odysseus: For some, war becomes home. This treatise, focused on immersing the viewer in the multi-faceted pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus as Odysseus returns home to Ithaca, feels like a systematic exploration of the challenges faced by many soldiers returning from active duty, including post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, reintegrating into their former lives with family and society, and flashbacks to memories and past pains, and the resulting internal change that is irreversible. “The Return” is powered by a great cast to allow the viewer to experience the rollercoaster ride that the two key characters ride to great heights, the latter thanks to the unique and special resilience of both Penelope and Odysseus during this difficult time in their lives, and without the support of each other. In fact, the two are kept separate for much of the film, which only makes the catharsis more intense in the most intense, thriller-like later part of an otherwise slower film. Fiennes brings his own unique style of portraying suffering to this work, a perfect extension of the wonderful skills he has used in other portrayals of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope because the viewer can be tricked to some extent into feeling and hoping that these two will reunite in a similar way to The English Patient, and Pasolini uses this to create additional tension in this work by those whose memory of The English Patient is still alive. It is a wonderful and very important work that needs to be experienced!