The Return

Adapting classical literature is never an easy task, because of both the expectations that come with it as well as the simple fact these stories are so known, so defining, that it is difficult to manage anything new with such a film. In the case of The Return, the new film from Uberto Pasolini, who also gave us another 2024 gem, in Nowhere Special, the accomplishment is all the more staggering, because what Pasolini and his co-writers, John Collins and Edward Bond, have done is to take The Odyssey and make something which feels fresh. This is done by focusing only on the final section, wherein Odysseus returns to Ithica to reclaim his throne and lay waste to the suitors eyeing his wife and who have been harassing his family, their wealth and the land.

Courtesy Bleecker Street

What we have is Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus, in one of his greatest turns, opposite Juliette Binoche as Penelope, the put-upon Queen Odysseus has come back to after twenty years. Instead of framing this as a straight revenge tale, or an action-adventure film full of mythological creatures, Pasolini has crafted a film that digs deep into the mental, physical, social and emotional costs of war, both on the soldiers themselves but those they leave behind. It is a serious, yet never self-serious film, handled with care and gravity but not dour or sour.

We never see the war with Troy, but we feel it. Similar to how discussions of war in other films, such as the one between two veterans in David Lynch’s The Straight Story, this film manages to bring home all the horrors of conflict without lingering on images of warfare. In being told, we are shown and moreover, the acting here allows us to feel the emotional weight of what transpired. It is a wise enough film that it knows to build interest in characters, protagonist and antagonist alike. It is a simple story with a literary depth uncommon to many adaptations.

Courtesy Bleecker Street

There have been other versions of this story, in particular, including both O’Brother, Where Art Thou? and the tv miniseries, The Odyssey, with Armand Assante in the central role. Both are excellent, with the Assante version capturing the fantastic and the Coen film the human side, yet never has there been an adaptation which understood what the monsters really were. Here, they are the deeds of Odysseus and his compatriots during the war, and the very personal reasons he did not come home sooner. Were there fantastic beasts involved? Maybe, but here it may be much more satisfying to imagine a traumatized king wandering for a decade, trying to piece himself together. Rarely has this part of the cost of war been as clearly demonstrated on film.

This is a work concerned with memory and pain, and how we must confront those memories in order to move past the pain, rather than lose ourselves in its grip. Binoche is astonishing here, as Penelope, every bit the equal of Feinnes, but so are, in their own ways, Claudio Santamaria and Marwan Kenzari, as Eumaeus and Antinous. Charlie Plummer acquits himself capably as Telemachus, in a largely thankless role. Santamaria acts as a wise counsel and guide for both viewer and the awakening king, while Kenzar avoids being a mustache twirling villain, imbuing a very twisted, yet all too real, humanity into the role. The rest of the film, particularly the location shooting and costuming, are fitting, gorgeous and true to the story being told. There is, as a result, a true, earned sense of space, place and time.

Courtesy Bleecker Street

The Return is one of the most satisfying literary adaptations in many years, and among the year’s best films. It is not for children. It is violent, complicated and contains moments of beauty and gruesomeness — often in the same moment — which may linger. If you want to relive the most human part of The Odyssey, and not have to encounter any fantastical, this is your best bet. A film that has retained the magic while taking magic out of the equation, rendering the tale all the more powerful, and, indeed, mythic, because of it.

The Return is now playing in theaters.