Glasgow Film Festival 2025: THE RETURN

It is hard to think of a grander story than that of Homer’s Odyssey. One of western literature’s greatest and oldest texts, it survives today with its relevance and appeal remarkably intact. Of course, there have been many adaptations of the classic story, both directly and obliquely. Kirk Douglas portrayed the famous Grecian in 1954, Armand Assante for a miniseries in 1997. Elsewhere, the story has been adapted by the Coen brothers in 2000’s O’ Brother Where Art Thou, with George Clooney assuming the leading role, and by Theo Angelopolous in Ulysses’ Gaze, with Harvey Keitel playing the lead.

Its grandiosity is perhaps what gives it its lasting appeal; that there are so many ways to read the text, so many moments ripe with meaning and value. That an audience can relate to a text many thousands of years old as if it were written today speaks volumes about The Odyssey’s ability to convey its message and humanity. Crucially, it is also a story of capricious gods and terrifying monsters, which gives The Odyssey so much of its epic nature. It is easy to see why something with the stature of Christopher Nolan would be drawn to such an ambitious project, but a little harder to see the value for Uberto Pasolini.

Odyssey

For Pasolini’s interpretation of The Odyssey eschews the classic Nostos style of the books, and focuses solely on Odysseus returning home to Ithaca. Gone are the gods and monsters, the epic battles and heroic deeds. Stripped of the stuff that – arguably – gives The Odyssey much of its appeal, and foregoing any of the bombast of its titular character, The Return is a much more sombre, austere offering. It’s ambitious in its own way, and appears to have been a labour of love for Pasolini, unfortunately not all of it comes together in the way you’d hope.

Odysseus (here played by Ralph Fiennes) washes up naked on the shores of Ithaca, home at last after a ten year voyage. The lone survivor of that voyage, Odysseus is guilt-ridden by the deaths of his men and tortured by the experience of the war in Troy. He is rescued by Eumaes (Claudio Santamaria) who nurses him back to health while relaying the state of the island to him. The old king Laertes is broken and frail, close to death, while a large group of suitors have settled on the island to vie for the hand of Odysseus’ wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche). These suitors have grand intentions of ascending to Kinghood through Penelope and securing her vast wealth for themselves. As such, she keeps them at bay – declaring that she will not make her decision on who to marry until she has finished weaving a shroud for her ailing father-in-law. At night she picks apart the weave to buy more time until Odysseus returns.

Odysseus’ son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) urges his mother to chose a suitor so that they can end the nightmare and berates his her indecisiveness, although she is aware of something he may not be: any suitor she choses will be quick to murder her son and heir. Telemachus, frustrated by the situation, sets off to look for his father. Meanwhile, Odysseus quietly recuperates under the guise of an old beggar while plotting to take back his home.

A World Without Gods

The biggest talking point about The Return is undoubtedly Pasolini’s decision to omit the mythological aspects of The Odyssey in favour of a realist retelling. It’s a strange move that leaves at least one plot-hole (in the books Odysseus is transformed by the goddess Athena into an old man, unrecognisable to anyone, in order to fool the suitors who would attempt to kill him; in The Return he is simply not recognised by anyone – even his own wife – for he has been away so long. Could anyone really be completely unrecognisable after a twenty year absence? Especially to the mother of their child?), and grounds the story to a halt on a few occasions. As well as this, the narrative itself crawls along at a glacial pace, content to build up what limited dramatic tension exists. Ultimately, The Return isn’t able to sustain its premise over a long runtime without pacing problems.

Another talking point will be the collaboration of Fiennes and Binoche, nearly 30 years after The English Patient swept the Oscars. Both are typically excellent here and worth the price of admission. Fiennes‘ version of Odysseus may rankle with some; he is not the handsome hero triumphantly returning home, nor the charismatic adventurer whose wooden horse fooled the Trojans. Here Odysseus is battle scarred and world weary. The early scenes show him naked and vulnerable (although Fiennes does display impressive physique for his age), practically cowering from the world. He is self-doubting and bitter, haunted by his experiences. When he does finally take action, it is not quite the moment you hope for. Binoche imbues Penelope will a similar weariness, but hers is tinged with anger. She smoulders in most scenes, casting withering looks towards her Suitors, when she is not holed up in her rooms weaving on a loom. A crucial scene between Binoche and Fiennes is loaded with the kind of tension and emotional heft that actors of this calibre can pull off, and it’s undoubtedly one of the best scenes in the movie.

Elsewhere, others prove less capable. Plummer, though he has proven his skill in other projects, is unfortunately miscast as Telemachus. The son of Odysseus has the weight of Ithaca on his shoulders, and a looming threat of death from the Suitors, yet Plummer can’t quite communicate Telemachus’ pain or confusion. When confronted with his father finally, after years of waiting and searching, his reaction feels strangely forced. Another playing Telemachus might have been able to draw more complexities from the character, but Plummer feels a little one-note. There are few other performances worth nothing – aside from Santamaria, excellent as the quietly perceptive Eumaes, and Marwen Kenzari as the rapacious Antinous. The rest of the cast are relegated to background characters uttering cliched – sometimes bafflingly awful – line readings, portraying 2D characters who exist purely as cannon fodder for Odysseus’ revenge.

Finally, in his commitment to the realism of the piece, Pasolini specifically choses a somewhat muted composition for his shots. Filmed in Rome and Malta, there are plenty of beautiful shots to be had, but there’s something workmanlike about how each scene is framed and coloured. The austere filmmaking, however, does give Fiennes and Binoche plenty of moments of intense staring, and perhaps that was the intension all along.

Conclusion

The Return will not be for everyone. Its simple cinematography, its eschewing of Greek mythos; its dull character performances outside of the main cast – none of this screams of the epic inherent with the oft-told tale of Odysseus. It has been done better elsewhere. However, come for the performance of Fiennes and Binoche, and you will not be disappointed. Two fiercely talented actors such as these can raise almost any material.

The Return screened as part of the Glasgow Film Festival 2025.