The Return
Uberto Pasolini's "The Return" chooses to focus on arguably the least spectacular part of The Odyssey, namely the very end, when a haggard and exhausted Ulysses finally comes back home after the huge, larger-than-life adventure that comprises the bulk of his story. Pasolini is interested in telling a story about normal people, without gods or monsters, dealing with the very human emotions that would result after such an otherworldly experience. In many ways, it's an exploration of the PTSD of a solider returning home after war; Pasolini himself has stated that he spoke with several Vietnam veterans to hear how they spoke about their own experiences after their own returns, and used a lot of their language within the movie.
The result is an admirable attempt at reminding us that these heroic figures were still mostly human beings, but the narrative restraint leads to a frustrating watch. On the one hand, the movie effortlessly captivates your interest through the glorious visuals and the expert performances, but the movie never seems to overcome the sense that there isn't enough here for it to be a complete story, because, of course, it isn't one by design. And as such, the two-hour runtime feels stretched, leaving you wanting some of the good stuff that was left out.
If the movie works at all, it's primarily down to the giant-sized performances of Ralph Fiennes as Ulysses and Juliette Binoche as Penelope. Fiennes in particular goes above and beyond, getting in impressive shape for a 61-year old (or even a 30-year old), and allowing Pasolini to have the camera constantly focused on his body. The movement of each muscle shows the strength and power of a once-great warrior, but it's a body now covered by scars, weather-beaten by time, lips chapped by the endless sun, the face cracked by pain and exhaustion, blood always appearing in every frame from a fresh cut somewhere on his back. Fiennes had more than enough gravitas to portray a legendary figure like Ulysses already even without his physical transformation, but his commitment to the role takes things to the next level.
Binoche plays the tortured wife alongside her young distraught son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), left alone to defend a throne from an unruly mob of men looking to claim the family's title via marriage to Penelope, while slowly draining the land of its resources and terrorizing the remaining citizens. Much of the movie is spent trying to hide Telemachus, who the mob finds weak and superfluous to their demands. It's telling that none of the men of the mob are particularly interesting, mostly portrayed as oafish, entitled strongmen. Even Marwan Kenzari as Antinous, the "leader" of sorts, can only twirl his mustache and make vague threats while he remains mostly powerless to hurry Penelope into making any decisions.
Even Ulysses finally arriving back on the island takes a while to create any momentum, as he spends a long period of time sulking around, agonizing over the soldiers lost in the war, feeling undeserving of reuniting with Penelope. Philosophical conversations are had about the nature of war and violence, many of which fall flat and lead you to wish the movie would've shown instead of told. And yet, Fiennes and Binoche hold things together through the sheer power of their talents, all the way up to the movie's inevitable clash between Ulysses and the mob of suitors, which is filmed rather plainly for what could've been a much more impressive action sequence, leading to a slight anticlimax in what is already a pretty quiet movie.
"The Return" is an interesting experiment of a concept and a fresh way to approach the classic story, but it doesn't altogether work as a two-hour movie and would have fallen apart completely if not for Fiennes and Binoche. If anything, it will have you jonesing to read The Odyssey again so you can experience the entire (and superior) story.
