Few stories have been reinvented, re-themed, re-formulated and re-made as often as those from Greek mythology and poetry, and of these: The Odyssey is a usual suspect. From the Coen brothers’ Jailbreak flick O brother, where are you? to James Joyce’s infamous density UlyssesThe influence of this Homeric epic has been reflected throughout the centuries. So how can we retell this ancient story in a novel way in 2024? If you are the film directed by Uberto Pasolini The returnThe answer is to strip the myth from this legend so thoroughly that all that remains are the bleached bones and the lingering nightmares of a senseless war on the other side of the Aegean. Thanks to a great turn from Ralph Fiennes in the role of our hollow-eyed Ithacan king, it mostly works, even if it doesn’t earn its self-respect.

Takes place towards the end The Odyssey, The return finds Odysseus naked, dazed and confused after a shipwreck. Despite all odds, he returned to his homeland after 20 long years. In the original Homeric Hexameter, he spent ten years besieging Troy, and the rest of his absence was whipped around at sea as punishment for angering Poseidon before being held captive by Calypso.

In this story it is initially unclear where all the time has gone; Here, gods and mythological creatures, if they exist at all, are far removed from us. That probably rules out being imprisoned by a literal nymph. After Odysseus hides his identity, his palace is besieged by suitors vying for the hand of his wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche). Each of them strives for the throne of Ithaca as the island falls into ruin. Penelope has rejected these men in the hope of her husband’s return, but this has alienated her son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), who wants her to accept his father’s death so that the kingdom can move on. Odysseus thinks about what to do next, unsure whether he wants to intervene and whether his people would even welcome him back if he did.

As you can probably guess, this rendition is decisive not an epic. As a young Ithacan excitedly retells the siege of Troy in Homeric style, Odysseus shoots down these hints of heroism with a thousand-yard stare before delivering a far more barbaric and realistic account of the destruction of Troy, involving a great deal of senseless carnage. That is The Odyssey Filtered through the modern grime and haze of a post-war film, showing graphic footage of a ruined island as Odysseus is tortured by what he has done. Ithaca doesn’t look like a great, mythical island, but rather a desolate place plundered by vultures. Cinematographer Marius Panduru largely avoids sweeping camera movements in recreating Greek epic poetry, instead using a narrow frame to capture the protagonist’s wrinkled folds and shaggy beard.

This cropped camera is a good choice if you’re focused on Fiennes selling The return‘s dour presentation. He oscillates between joy at finally being home, squeezing dirt between his fingers, and despair at what he’s lost. There is a perpetual, eerie distance to the performance that captures Odysseus’ guilt of survival at having returned alone, and as he flexes his muscles in the face of the suitors’ provocations, we can see that he is trying to avoid the repetition of the brutal acts that took place he deeply regrets avoiding it. While the concept of a grim, sinister Odysseus stripped of his mischievous guile and left with only repressed male rage could have seemed overly macabre, the nuance of Fiennes’ performance gives this portrayal added depth, even if the film’s generally morbid presentation This still doesn’t always land.

Still, it certainly helps that the band of admirers who plague him are convincingly evil, and while only Marwan Kenzari’s Antinous exhibits a similar level of well-rounded heft, the rest of that band is deeply despicable. There’s Tom Rhys Harries as the sociopathic Pisander, whose ice-cold gaze and unpredictability create tension in every scene he appears in, and Jamie Andrews Cutler’s brutal Polybus, who kills without consideration. They murder and steal without remorse, while their casual cruelty intensifies The return‘s dark tone and at the same time a worthwhile counterpoint to our guilt-ridden king.

This all leads to the main conflict, which makes the most of these ruminations on post-traumatic stress disorder and ongoing war trauma: Odysseus is haunted by his past acts of violence and seems unwilling to repeat them, even against the suitors who destroy Ithaca. We know how The Odyssey ends with the hero slaughtering the suitors to the last man, even killing the maids who have fraternized with them, and this seemingly inevitable conclusion hangs over the film.

In The returnOdysseus is so distraught over the Trojan War that his efforts to return to Penelope are internal rather than external, and he is afraid that the things he has done have left him unrecognizable. It’s a well-explored exploration of the character, culminating in a somewhat unsettling climax that highlights the general absence of heroism in this tale. Here killing is just killing.

And yet the script by John Collee, Edward Bond and Pasolini fails to answer its biggest questions. Penelope asks her husband, “Why do men go to war?” There aren’t many answers to that question, and the film ends with a twist that seems completely out of place – a twist that undermines his attempts to come to terms with the nature of violence , retroactively weakened. But even though the ending ties everything together perfectly, the moroseness of the film doesn’t add up and occasionally becomes boring. While The return Although it only partially succeeds in reimagining Homer through the lens of anti-war cinema, some excellent performances ensure that it is not as lost as its main hero.

Director: Uberto Pasolini
Authors: John Collee, Edward Bond, Uberto Pasolini
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Charlie Plummer, Marwan Kenzari
Release date: December 6, 2024