Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche lead Uberto Pasolini’s classical Greek drama, The Return, a slow-burning yet timeless emotional story adapted from Homer’s The Odyssey.
Odysseus (Fiennes), thought long lost after failing to return home from the Trojan War, washes up on the shore of Ithaca. Gone for 20 years, he is as unrecognizable to his people as his kingdom is to him. In his time away, his wife Queen Penelope (Binoche) has been steadfast in her desire to wait for his return. Their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), born after Odysseus’s departure, is now a man who has lost faith that his father will ever return as he grows impatient with his mother. Adding to the tension, a group of unruly suitors vies for her hand in marriage in order to become the new king.
Odysseus bides his time returning to the castle, seeing what his kingdom has become in his absence. Tensions mount as the suitors become restless, forcing Penelope to choose the new king as threats escalate against Telemachus’ safety. When Odysseus finally reveals himself, he is put to a test of both skill and strength that will see him fight to regain what has been lost as a husband, father, and king.
Choosing a narrow focus of Homer’s grand tale is the correct move for Pasolini’s film, directed from a script he co-wrote with John Collee and Edward Bond. Making Odysseus’s return to Ithaca and the events surrounding Penelope’s suitors the focus of the odyssey back home, the adaptation allows the story to centre around the deep love between a husband and wife. Most of the epic battles at sea are excluded for a streamlined story, which allows the actors to dig deep.
The film also marks a return to the dynamic pairing of Fiennes and Binoche. Here, they reunite 28 years after appearing together in The English Patient, and 32 years after their first pairing in 1992’s Wuthering Heights. Seemingly ageless, Binoche is breathtaking as Penelope who is steely in her resolve to wait for her husband. When the moment of recognition finally comes, the longing and chemistry between her and Fiennes is undeniable. The camera loves them. Bincohe commands the screen, giving so much with just a stare amid long silent pauses as she contemplates her options saying more with her expressions than dialogue ever could.
For his part, Fiennes transforms both physically and emotionally as the battle-worn king. Adept at fighting men much younger than his battered Odysseus, there is some physical action here interspersed with the weighty dialogue. It is through these dialogue-driven scenes of classical Greek drama that Pasolini is truly effective as a director. While the action scenes are competently filmed, the quieter moments of The Return are its strength. Pasolini emphasizes emotion over brutality in The Return, and Fiennes rises to meet the challenge in exemplary form. With another superb turn at TIFF in Conclave, Fiennes is in top form in 2024, delivering two masterful and controlled performances.
The craggy, rocky bleached landscape of Ithaca is as formidable and impenetrable as Odysseus. Returning from the war alone without the men he set sail with, he is a broken and battered man. Despite the rumours painting him as a great war hero who not only cleverly created the Trojan Horse but succeeded in hand-to-hand combat, Odysseus feels far removed from the larger-than-life praise heaped upon him.
Truth be told, other than Fiennes, Binoche, and the scenery, there isn’t much else here, but I would ask: what more do you need?
