Film Review: The Return

Uberto Passolini’s 2025 film The Return is an adaptation of the latter half of the ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey. The film follows Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) and his return home to the island of Ithaca after a 20 year absence fighting in the Trojan War. Whilst Odysseus has been presumed dead, his wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is plagued by rowdy suitors who are intent on forcing her to remarry. Their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) grows increasingly frustrated with his mother for not remarrying and his father for abandoning them. 

It is a story of guilt, shame, and the endurance of love. Odysseus as we meet him in this film is not the powerful conquering hero of Greek myth (despite Ralph Fiennes revealing himself to be ridiculously buff at the end of this film for some unknown reason). Rather, he is an old man wrecked by the trauma of his experiences in the Trojan War and the guilt of having abandoned his family and neglected his home. 

In a departure from the usual on-screen adaptations of the Greek myths, this film presents an incredibly grounded depiction of Homer’s story; there are no gods, cyclops, or harpies to be found here. Instead, we are presented with an emotional drama about familial strife and PTSD; the trials of returning to ordinary life after undergoing a great trauma

Going into the film, I was admittedly a little worried that its commitment to grounded realism over the more fantastical aspects of Greek mythology would result in something slightly dull, but I couldn’t have been more wrong: this film is a fascinating and emotional reinterpreting of The Odyssey.     

Part of what made this film so compelling was how expertly it captured the alien brutality of the bronze age world. Encountering any work of Homeric literature, or ancient art and literature in general, can be deeply surreal and alienating because it depicts a moral universe that is utterly unrecognisable to a modern audience. Violence, cruelty, misogyny, these traits were all considered heroic to the ancient Greeks, which can make ancient Greek literature difficult to adapt to modern mainstream cinema. 

The Return presents the source material in a way that felt authentic — Odysseus is kind of a horrifying character in this film; his actions, particularly the slaughter of the suitors at the film’s climax, are brutal and disturbing. His son, Telemachus, is presented as a pathetic misogynist, whose fragile masculinity causes him to lash out against his mother. 

The Return stands out because of its unflinching portrayal of this vicious era of history, an era that is often romanticised in pop culture. There are also small details littered throughout that greatly contribute towards the creation of this film’s period setting. The sound design in this film, for example, was really spectacular — the satisfying thwang of Odysseus’ bow and arrow still sticks in my mind. The soothing sounds of the, in Homer’s words, wine-dark sea crashing against the beaches of the island sucked me into the Mediterranean world. These small details help to sell the historical setting, and the film employs them perfectly. Overall, this film’s depiction of its source material was strikingly effective, and made for a fascinating cinematic experience.

Christopher Nolan is currently filming his own adaptation of The Odyssey, set to be released next year, and I’m curious to see how that film will compare to this one. From the sounds of it, Nolan’s adaptation will stay true to the more traditional fantastical elements of this story, and while I’m sure Nolan will be able to craft an impressive and exciting fantasy adventure, I wonder if this film’s more subtle and understated approach to this classic myth will prove to be more interesting. Either way, I think this thoughtful and emotional drama is well worth anyone’s time.  

The Return is showing now at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham.