The Return

Writers: John Collee, Edward Bond and Uberto Pasolini

Director: Uberto Pasolini

Taking us back to the days of The Odyssey, a time when shirts for men hadn’t yet been invented, Pasolini’s version of Homer’s story is a godless affair. Instead, Uberto Pasolini focuses on the human drama between Odysseus and Penelope related in the final books of Homer’s poem. Absent are Athena and Zeus, and absent is the bloodthirsty thrill of revenge. Ralph Fiennes’ Odysseus returns to Ithaca a broken man, like a soldier with PTSD.

To focus on the psychological damage that conflict produces rather than war’s victories is a very modern concern, and we will have to wait until 2026 to discover how Matt Damon portrays the Greek hero in Christopher Nolan’s retelling. In The Return, Fiennes’ Odysseus is haunted by the blood he caused to run down the streets of Troy. When Penelope (Juliette Binoche) asks her disguised husband whether Odysseus has raped while fighting abroad, he doesn’t answer as if guilt and shame have overpowered him, this once King of Ithaca.

The tricky reunion between husband and wife – for she, at first, is unsure whether the tramp that arrives at court is truly Odysseus, who has been away for 20 years – is at the heart of this new interpretation of one world’s oldest stories. Back together again, after The English Patient of 1996, Fiennes and Binoche give commanding performances, especially Binoche who, when cloaked, is reminiscent of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Like Mary, Binoche is eternally sad, carrying the weight of the evil that men unleash.

Fiennes, at 60, looks amazing, and his ripped, roped torso, with its veins at bursting point, is apparently down to hours at the gym and dieting rather than prosthetics or digital enhancement. Pasolini may have excised the deities from his narrative, but Fiennes is presented as a demi-god. He’s almost unrecognisable in comparison to his fusty, humble cardinal in Conclave. That his past war crimes continue to trouble his dreams is unquestionable. When it comes to action, his conscience paralyses him.

When neither Fiennes nor Binoche are on screen, the film is less steady. The suitors, save Marwan Kenzari’s almost likeable Antinous, give stilted broad performances as if they are on stage, making sure that the back row of the gods knows their intentions. The simple script doesn’t help either as it renders the characters as two-dimensional and expendable, even before Odysseus gets his mojo back. Charlie Plummer, as the weary Telemachus, does better and captures the young prince’s youthful petulance but there’s very little change in his expressions.

The score, by Pasolini’s ex-wife Rachel Portman, leans towards Philip Glass in parts, and although effective, you wish that the music swirled even more and lost some of its romantic quality. But it complements the rushing waves around the island and the blood-filled veins that stream over Fiennes’ muscles,

The story, co-written with the late Edward Bond, will surely irk some Homerists, but without the Cyclopes and Circe, this updated version of the mother of all stories resonates more strongly for today.

The Return will open in cinemas on 11 April 2025.