Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Uberto Pasolini
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Charlie Plummer, Tom Rhys Harries, Marwan Kenzari
The critical and commercial success of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies
quickly resulted in America's great mythology - the comic books of
publishers Marvel and DC - being stripped of its more fantastical elements
in an attempt to draw in a wide audience while appeasing cynical critics.
In recent years this "Nolanisation" of classic texts has spread beyond
American comics, with Robert Eggers' recent Nosferatu being a Nolanised version of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', one that
removes most of the supernatural elements we associate with the tale.
Nolanisation has now infected Greek mythology with director Uberto Pasolini's The Return, a reimagining of the final books of 'The Odyssey' that removes all of
Homer's imagination in favour of that modern pox on cinema, "gritty
realism."
The film picks up 20 years after Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) left his
island kingdom of Ithaca to fight in the Trojan war. In his absence, his
wife, the queen Penelope (Juliette Binoche), has attracted many
suitors who have flocked to the island like vultures as they wait for her
to finally admit that her husband won't be making a return. Terrified of
what might happen if she marries one of these scoundrels, Penelope uses a
delaying tactic of promising to pick a husband when she finishes weaving a
death shroud for her sickly father-in-law, but every time she nears
completion she picks apart the garment to buy herself more time. Odysseus
and Penelope's son, Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), finds his life
threatened as he attempts to protect his mother and faithfully awaits his
father's return.
As the movie's title implies, Odysseus does indeed return, washing up
naked on one of Ithaca's beaches, where he is taken in by a farmer and
nursed back to health. With nobody recognising the once great leader,
Odysseus lives the life of a beggar as he hatches a plot to retake his
kingdom.
At time of writing, Christopher Nolan is himself in development of an
adaptation of Homer's Odyssey and Pasolini's film should probably prime us
for what to expect from that undertaking. Pasolini does for Homer what
Nolan did for Alexandre Dumas with his reworking of 'The Count of Monte
Cristo', The Dark Knight Rises. Like The Count and The Batman, Odysseus finds himself returning to the
land where he once occupied a stately role, only to find it ruled by
scurrilous figures. The Return's narrative is essentially a drawn out version of that moment in every
wrestling match where the fan favourite finds themselves on the floor
until they summon the energy to rise and take out the heel. It's a tale as
old as time, or at least recorded time, and far from spicing it up,
Pasolini and co-writers John Collee and Edward Bond have removed most of its flavour.
There are no gods and monsters in this version of the tale, just mortal
men and women. It has more in common with the Spartacus TV series than with the epic tales of Greek mythology, albeit with
less dongs on display. Pasolini has little flair for the visual, filming
his not-so-epic largely in uninspiring televisual fashion. The cast mostly
resembles a group of young male models who have been plucked from the
catwalks of London and slathered in grease, and there are some truly
embarrassing line deliveries here. The very modern Plummer is especially
miscast, playing Telemachus in such rote mopey teen fashion that we
half-expect him to pull on a Nirvana t-shirt at some point. Removing the
fantasy elements makes much of the story difficult to swallow, chiefly the
failure of anyone to recognise Odysseus, not even his wife. If I hadn't
seen Fiennes since 2005's The Constant Gardener, I don't think I would spend my time watching The Return wondering who this mysterious new actor is, and yet we're supposed
to believe nobody recognises the most famous man in their land after a
20-year absence (in the original story a goddess uses her supernatural
powers to disguise Odysseus as a beggar).
Reuniting three decades after they shared the screen in The English Patient (and looking just as good), the performances of Fiennes and Binoche
are undoubtedly the highlight of The Return. Binoche is given little to do and yet manages to embody a woman
attempting to stay strong and regal while secretly fearing for her safety.
While he's clearly spent some time in the gym, Fiennes convinces us of
Odyseuss's returning strength not through his impressive physique but in
the way he carries himself, gradually rising from his stoop, and in the
way his eyes seem to slowly come alive the closer he gets to retaking what
was once his. But you can't help but wish these two performances had been
saved for a more deserving film, and they ultimately do little to enliven
a disastrously misjudged attempt to refashion an epic myth as a gritty
drama.
The Return is in UK/ROI cinemas
from April 11th.
