THE RETURN (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

The Return, Bleecker Street

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 5, 2024

After 20 years of war and mythical adventures, it seems strange that Odysseus disguises himself upon his return home to Ithaca. In Homer's Odyssey, that move is to observe the state of his kingdom and to test the loyalty, apparently, of his wife, who is surrounded by suitors looking to marry the queen.

Odysseus' actions here never quite made much sense, since the problems within Ithaca could be boiled down to his absence, which he could resolve immediately, and, as for the faithfulness of his wife Penelope, she has spent two decades waiting for her husband and refused to marry any of the men who come with only that goal in mind. If that doesn't prove a wife's devotion to her husband, what more evidence could wandering around disguised as a beggar gain?

Co-writer/director Uberto Pasolini's The Return focuses on this final section of Homer's epic poem, and it seems to have been made with a similar sense of confusion about the hero's actions and motivations. Can Pasolini, along with co-screenwriters Edward Bond and John Collee, make Odysseus' scheme make sense? They do, by turning the man into one broken by battle, shamed by his failure to protect his fellow countrymen while traveling home, and uncertain if a woman as clearly good and steadfast as his wife deserves a man such as the one he has become.

The story here is an intriguing proposition, because it fully humanizes a tale filled with gods, monsters, and other mythical creatures, while also transforming Odysseus into a psychologically vulnerable figure. The move resolves those lingering questions about the man's odd behavior upon coming home.

A character's motivation, of course, only takes the drama and conflict of a story so far, and Pasolini's movie becomes a little too caught up in its revised depiction of Odysseus, played by Ralph Fiennes, to flesh out the other elements of this tale. It's also so enveloped in the protagonist's downtrodden mood that the whole of the movie possesses an unfortunately diminished sense of energy. The filmmakers may have made these mythical heroes and villains human, but that doesn't mean they have come across as if they're sleepwalking through the narrative. It's still a matter of myth and, as such, probably deserves at least a little pep in the storytelling.

Fiennes is quite good here, though, as Odysseus, a man who finds himself unwittingly washed on the shore of his homeland after being gone for 20 years and enduring trials of which he will not speak. After being taken in and tended to by pig farmer Eumeo (Claudio Santamaria), the clandestine king learns of what has happened in his absence.

His father has gone mad from grief. Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), the son who was born shortly after Odysseus' departure to fight in the Trojan War, has become aimless, and his wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) has been hounded for a few years by countless men wanting to marry her. Antinous (Marwan Kenzari), one of those suitors, is especially determined, making not-so-veiled threats toward Telemachus if she doesn't choose him.

Most of this, then, kind of goes in circles, as Odysseus talks around his traumatic experiences during the war, Telemachus tries to figure out what kind of man he will become, and Penelope uses the excuse of an unfinished shroud for her father-in-law to keep the suitors at bay. At night, she undoes whatever progress she made on the cloth during the day, and that almost feels like a decent metaphor for the course of this narrative, too.

Fiennes' performance becomes the heart of the story, as a man wrestling with his deeds in battle (including coming up with that wooden horse that resulted in the razing of Troy), seeing how much grief his absence has caused to his family and trouble it has resulted in for the people of Ithaca, and feeling as if the former means he is unworthy of doing anything about the latter. Odysseus' motives and actions make sense in this interpretation of the story, which is no small feat, to be sure.

It's still not enough, though, to compensate for how languid the movie feels, despite the intriguing characterization of Odysseus and the fine re-creation of ancient Greece on display. Those who know the story know where it's heading, as the hidden king will eventually have to figure out what to do about the pesky suitors, staying in his home, eating his food, and rudely courting his wife.

The delay in him taking action, again, makes sense, because this is a man, physically and psychologically scarred by violence, who wants nothing more to do with it. When the inevitable moment arrives for Odysseus to act, it's odd to hear characters speak of his rage, since everything about him seems calm and almost apathetic.

Emotion and drama seem drained from the events of The Return (Odysseus' reunion with his dog might be the most emotionally charged one here, which is an odd choice). Pasolini is so set on grounding this mythical story in reality that, for all its thoughtful reconsiderations of its hero, the movie just lies there dispassionate and weary.

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