46/16
For the third time, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche acted together in a film
Tale
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife held captive by rival suitors and his son in danger of death. In order to get his family back and everything he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength.
Odysseus: For some, war becomes home
They previously worked together on The English Patient and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Penelope: How can men find their way to war but not their way home?
The multifactorial pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus as Odysseus returns home to Ithaca, this treatise is thought to be a fairly systematic exploration of the challenges of many warriors
dealing with returning from active duty, including PTSD and other mental health issues, returning to their former lives in family and society, reliving the memories and pain they experienced, and the resulting internal changes that are irreversible. The Return is built on a wide range of casting choices to allow the viewer to experience the rollercoaster ride of both protagonists to significant heights, the latter due to the unique and special endurance of Penelope and Odysseus during this difficult period in their lives.
and without each other’s support
In fact, the two are quite detached for most of the build-up, which only heightens the catharsis of the most intense, thriller-like later part of an otherwise slow-burning film. In this piece, Fiennes brings his own unique style to the depiction of suffering, a perfect extension of his amazing skills from the juxtaposition of pain and suffering in Spider-Man and End of the World.
This is a great and very relevant piece of work that must be experienced!
Binoche is an excellent choice for Penelope, as the viewer can be tricked into feeling and hoping that the two will bond in the same way that they were close throughout The English Patient, and Pasolini exploits this to create additional tension in this production, the memory of The English Patient is vivid.