The Return

Yesterday I went to a matinee of The Return and, as a fan of Homer's The Odyssey and of both Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, I was really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, I found this retelling of the classic story to be really bland and lifeless.  It has been twenty years since Odysseus (Fiennes) left Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War and his wife Penelope (Binoche) has been besieged by suitors who wish to wed her and take his place.  The suitors have also despoiled the island and bullied the inhabitants causing Penelope to keep her son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) close to her and, therefore, weak.  Odysseus washes up on shore naked, battered, and completely unrecognizable with no explanation for where he has been other than he has been traumatized by war.  He takes refuge with the swineherd Eumaeus (Claudio Santamaria) but he is forced to reveal his identity when the suitors attack Telemachus and when the suitor Antinous (Marwan Kenzari) forces Penelope to choose a husband.  Odysseus is the only one able to complete the challenge for Penelope's hand which provokes a battle during which Telemachus is finally able to prove himself and Odysseus is able to reunite with his wife.  Both Fiennes and Binoche give compelling performances but I still found this very tedious to watch.  In order to ground this retelling in reality, filmmakers have removed everything fanciful from the source material and replaced it with it with so many interminable close-up shots of silent contemplation.  Even with a long runtime there is not much backstory and those without a familiarity with the mythology might not understand anything that is going on because not much actually happens.  I even found the final battle, while incredibly bloody, to be very anticlimactic.  Aside from Fiennes, Binoche, and possibly Plummer, the rest of the acting is quite stilted and most of the characters do not make any sort of impression.  I really wanted this to be better than it was and recommend giving it a miss (unless you are big fans of the lead actors).