11/40
After 20 years, Ulysses finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife held captive by suitors vying for the throne and his son facing death at their hands. To win back his family and all he has lost, Ulysses must rediscover his strength. Third time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have starred in a film together. They previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can men find their way to war but not their way home? Ulysses: For some, war becomes home. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multi-faceted pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus during Odysseus’ return to Ithaca, this treatise seemed to explore quite systematically the challenges that many soldiers face upon returning from active service, including PTSD and other mental health issues, reintegration into previous life with family and society, and flashbacks of memories and pain suffered and inflicted, and the resulting internal change that is irreversible. The Return is fueled by a great casting choice to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster ride that the two main protagonists reach to significant heights, the latter due to the unique and particular resilience of Penelope and Odysseus in this difficult time of their lives, and without the support of each other. In fact, the two are kept quite separate for most of the build-up, which makes the catharsis more powerful only in the most intense, most suspenseful and slow-burning part of the film. Fiennes brings his unique style of portraying suffering to this work – a great extension of his wonderful skill derived from his adjacent depictions of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope, as the viewer can be tricked into feeling and hoping that the two will be reunited in the same way they were close in The English Patient, and Pasolini uses this to create additional tension in this work for those whose memories of The English Patient are vivid. This is a fantastic and very relevant work that must be experienced!
