Uberto Pasolini’s The Return stars Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in a retelling of the last section of Homer’s Odyssey. He is Odysseus and she is Penelope in a stripped-back tale that presents the pair as psychologically plausible human beings rather than characters from Greek myth. Fiennes and Binoche are, of course, spellbinding. I could look at their faces all day. But the narrative is so parched and meditative it’s ultimately enervating and seems as depressed as the hero himself. I ended up longing for a Cyclops or at least a six-headed monster.
Written by John Collee, Edward Bond and also Pasolini, the film throws no Gods or monsters in the mix and makes no mention of them. Instead, it’s a homecoming film that opens with Odysseus washing up on the shores of Ithaca. He’s returned, at last, but he’s naked, battle-scarred, bloodied, although, on the plus side, he is also sensationally ripped. (Fiennes underwent a tough five-month physical regime.) Odysseus had spent a decade fighting the Trojan war; then the journey back took another decade. He is the island’s King but is not the swaggering, mighty warrior he once was. He is broken, a lost soul, tormented that none of his men has survived. And on top of all that, presumably, there’s the jet lag. He can barely lift his head for most of the time.
Meanwhile, Penelope has not been having the best time. The island has gone to pot in Odysseus’s absence and she is now so beset by suitors who wish to marry her and rule that she’s become a prisoner in her own palace. She weaves by day, un-weaves by night, says she will choose imminently in order to keep them off her back. These are not Disney-style suitors. They are murderous and aggressive, and will rape and kill as soon as they look at you. They even plan to kill Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), Penelope and Odysseus’s sulky son. What no one knows is that Odysseus is, one, still alive and, two, has returned disguised as a poor beggar. This does wear a little thin. No one recognises him or even suspects? Apart from his old dog who is still going after 20 years? You have to blame Homer for such plot holes. On paper, the film sounds lively, but it doesn’t feel like that while you’re watching it.
The violence, when it comes, is brutal but there is never any tension or urgency as it’s all too drawn out. ‘For heaven’s sake, man, reveal yourself!’ you’ll want to shout at Odysseus. ‘Go see Penelope!’ you’ll also want to shout, as for most of the film the pair are kept apart. This Odysseus is not an action hero. He is not Kirk Douglas in Ulysses (1954). This Odysseus is watchful and withdrawn with Fiennes often confined to the dark corner of some dimly lit room, head bowed, barely speaking and when he does it’s in a portentous whisper. Still, he is commanding, as is his broodiness and physicality.
Binoche has little dialogue but her face does all the talking and the camera rarely strays from it, which is wise. It’s the first time the two have starred together since The English Patient (1996) and their combined firepower appears to be too much for the rest of the cast who fail to meet them. Some of the performances felt as if they’d be more at home on Hollyoaks. However, in their defence, all the secondary characters are woefully one-dimensional and, in some instances, do not much rise above panto baddies.
This may be worth the price of a cinema ticket solely for seeing how Fiennes and Binoche can do so much with so little. That’s the draw but, still, they couldn’t have thrown in a Siren or two?
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