The Return: a 'lethally effective' Odyssey adaptation

The last time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche shared the screen together, in 1996's "The English Patient", "he was a severely singed explorer and she was his sexy nurse", said Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times. He is "in somewhat better shape" for their cinematic reunion, in this "visually bleak and emotionally gripping" retelling of the final section of Homer's "Odyssey".

When the story begins, 20 years have passed since Odysseus (Fiennes) left Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War, and he has long since been taken for dead. His kingdom is "in ruins", and his faithful wife Penelope (Binoche) is "hounded by a swarm of squabbling suitors"; even their son, Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) pleads with her to remarry, so as to ensure their safety.

"What no one knows is that Odysseus is, one, still alive and, two, has returned disguised as a poor beggar," said Deborah Ross in The Spectator. It's a bit unconvincing that, aside from his dog (still going after 20 years), no one recognises him – but I guess "you have to blame Homer for such plot holes". Still, he can't be held responsible for film's other flaws: a pace so "meditative" that it's "enervating"; and a "brutal" climax, which is so "drawn out" that it is drained of any real "tension or urgency".

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The film's "not perfect", said Kevin Maher in The Times. The supporting roles leave a lot to be desired: Plummer's Telemachus is an "unfortunate lowlight". Yet this is Binoche and Fiennes's show, and "the heat they create on screen is intense enough to solder any cracks". Their scenes together are "riven with pain and resentment yet bound by love", and their performances alone justify this "lean and lethally effective adaptation".