Its not necessarily a dry season but there is not much to watch, people are just getting back form Xmas so I'm still picking up on some titles I had on my list for some reason or another, I recently watched Uberto Pasolini "The Return (2024)" and it was really a bit of fresh air in the world of epic Greek mythology, I had no idea what the movie was about at first because to be hones the cover looks very boring until I open its IMDB profile and watch the trailer. Set on the beautiful Greek island of Corfu, which I look up it stands for Ithaca, the movie develops the story of Homer's "The Odyssey" data-wpil-keyword-link="linked" data-wpil-monitor-id="2501">The Odyssey" down to its bare bones, following Odysseus played by no other than Ralph Fiennes, every character this man play turns into an epic performance, in the story Odysseus comes back home after twenty long years away. The movie is not your average CGI blockbuster, it’s a grounded, feels real, no bells or whistles kind of film, and its one of the things I absolutely loved about it.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19861162/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Rottentomatoes Rating
As for the entire cast, Fiennes and Binoche are the heart and soul of this movie, with them putting up great depth of feelings and realism of their characters makes for a solid story that will move you. Fiennes isn't just playing Odysseus, he is incarnating a soul of a man in torment because of his own past, his voice overtime, his body scars. At first or even from the cover you could tell how Odysseus almost disguise as a beggar when its not necessarily the case, having a moving reunion with his dog Argos and at times you could feel every second of the king’s regret of everything he has missed and loss. But its Binoche the strong one of this story, with her silent strength in the part of Penelope, especially when she is doing what ever she can and is necessary to slow the suitors down, is a woman under siege on all fronts, whose temper is as firm as her loyalty, waiting for the day that Odysseus comes back home.
After the violent ending Odysseus finally comes up as the hero and his son Telemachus fought along with him to defeat the suitors. Odysseus finally meets up with Penelope who had tricked all of the suitors with her weaving trick, expecting them to wait to finish her weeding dress to finally decide but she was only giving more time to Odysseus, she never loose hope. The meeting isn’t full of grand proclamations of love but something quiet and intense, full of years of yearning, doubt and acceptance on both parts. In that moment, Odysseus asks Penelope if she would take him back after all he has been through and it’s not just a matter of forgiveness of his absence, but acceptance of the man he has become, a long way from the old legend he once was before going to war.
Its expected that this is not a movie that would break any records been the story that draggy, I felt this was a missed opportunity to make this an epic story but there was no glorious landscape like in other Greek Theme movies, with little action and almost no CGI since it was not needed could at times felt like a blog of Odysseus life rather that part of The Odyssey.
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