34/12
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife held prisoner by pretenders vying for the throne and his son facing death at their hands. To win back his family and all he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength. This is the third time that Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have starred in a film together. They previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can men find their way to war, but not their way home? Odysseus: For some, war becomes home. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multifaceted pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus during Odysseus’ return home to Ithaca, this treatise seemed to explore quite systematically the challenges that many soldiers face upon returning from active duty, including PTSD and other mental health issues, reintegration into their former life with family and society, and flashbacks of memories and pains suffered and inflicted, and the resulting internal change that is irreversible. The Return is fueled by a great casting choice to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster ride that the two main protagonists ride to significant heights, the latter due to the unique and particular resilience of Penelope and Odysseus at this difficult time in their lives, and without the support of each other. In fact, the two are kept quite separate for most of the build-up, which only makes the catharsis more powerful in the most intense, more suspense-like, slow-burn portion of the film. Fiennes brings his unique style of depicting suffering to this work – a great extension of his wonderful skill set from his adjacent depictions of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope, as the viewer can be tricked into feeling and expecting the two to reunite in the same way they were close during The English Patient, and Pasolini exploits this to create additional tension in this work for those whose memory of The English Patient is vivid. This is a great and very relevant work that must be experienced!