46/26
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca to find his wife held captive by suitors seeking the throne, and his son facing death at their hands. To reclaim his family and all that he has lost, Odysseus must regain his strength. Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are making a film together for the third time, having previously worked together on Storm Pass (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can people find their way to war but not their way home? Odysseus: For some, war becomes home. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multi-faceted pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus as Odysseus returns to Ithaca, this treatise appears to be a fairly systematic examination of the issues many soldiers face after returning from active duty, including post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues, reintegration into their former lives with family and society, and memories and pain, according to experience, both induced and resulting internal changes that are irreversible. “The Return” is supported by an excellent cast, allowing the viewer to feel the rollercoaster ride of the two main characters rising to considerable heights, and the other, through the unique and special resilience of Penelope and Odysseus at this difficult time in their lives, without the support of each other. In fact, for most of the film they keep their distance, which only adds to the catharsis in the most intense, thriller-like final part of an otherwise slower film. Fiennes brings his own unique style of depicting suffering to this work, a wonderful extension of his extraordinary skills in the interconnected depictions of pain and suffering in Spider and The End of the Novel. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope because the viewer can be tricked into feeling and hoping that these two will reconnect in the same way that they were close throughout The English Patient, and Pasolini uses this to create an additional tension in the work for those whose memories of The English Patient are still vivid. This is a wonderful and very important work that needs to be experienced!