About the film
- Directed by
- Uberto Pasolini
- Released
- November 28, 2024
- US theatrical
- December 6, 2024
- Certification
- R
- Country
- Greece, Italy, United Kingdom, France
- Starring
- Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Charlie Plummer, Marwan Kenzari, Claudio Santamaria
More credits
- Language
- English
- Origin
- FR, GR, IT, GB
- Studios
- Picomedia, RAI Cinema, Redwave Films, Heretic, Kabo Films, Marvelous Productions, Ithaca Films, Greek Film Centre, ERT, UK Global Screen Fund, MiC, CNC
- Written by
- John Collee, Edward Bond, Uberto Pasolini, Homer
- Produced by
- James Clayton, Uberto Pasolini, Roberto Sessa, Giorgos Karnavas, Konstantinos Kontovrakis, Stéphane Moatti, Romain Le Grand, Vivien Aslanian, Marco Pacchioni, Andrew Karpen, Kent Sanderson, Ralph Fiennes, Keith Kehoe, Torsten Poeck, Linda Vianello
- Cinematography
- Marius Panduru
- Music
- Rachel Portman, Goffredo Gibellini
- Also starring
- Ángela Molina, Nikitas Tsakiroglou, Tom Rhys Harries, Jamie Andrew Cutler, Moe Bar-El
- Budget
- $20,000,000
- Box office
- $3,300,444
This "Odyssey" came out in 2024, starred two Oscar nominees (one winner), and played to near-empty theaters despite critical acclaim.
While Iphigenia (1977) gave us the beginning of the beginning of the journey, THE RETURN (2024) gives us only the end - the part after the monsters. No Cyclops. No Sirens. No Circe. No gods at all.
Director Uberto Pasolini cut every supernatural element out of the poem and kept what was left: a soldier washing up on a beach after twenty years of war, so wrecked by it that nobody on his own island knows his face.
Ralph Fiennes plays Odysseus, war-weary and starved to the bone. Juliette Binoche plays Penelope, holding a house full of men circling her husband's throne. It is the first time the two have appeared onscreen together since The English Patient (1996).
Pasolini shot it in Corfu and the Peloponnese with almost no visual effects. Real coastline, real stone, no army of digital ships.
The screenplay was the last thing Edward Bond ever wrote. Bond wrote Saved in 1965, the controversial play whose banning ultimately helped end theatre censorship in Britain. He also wrote the English dialogue for Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966). Bond died in March 2024, six months before this film reached its first audience.
How to see The Return (2024)
Streaming
United States
Also available internationally
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Source: JustWatch
Physical media
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The “grown-up” versions I guess. Both Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes is such great actors.
BRILLIANT.
It’s probably better than Nolan’s or at least Fiennes makes a better Odysseus
Marc Chomel he says….without seeing either one.
Damon absolutely killed it as Odysseus. Might be his best performance. Or up there at least. Loved the movie.
Kevin Culp I shall see. I saw The Return
Kevin Culp Is it possible to love both?
Deborah Griffin-Sadel absolutely. I thought the Return was decent. A bit slow and it removes MOST of what makes Homers poem so good.
“Director Uberto Pasolini cut every supernatural element out of the poem”
Never played in a theater remotely close to me. Had to find it streaming and pay. Good but quite violent. Very different than Nolan’s.
excellent film!!
Greate movie – and a MUCH better portrayal of the human beings in the story….something Nolan continually gets wrong in his movies.
I want to watch that
Buy the Blu-Ray: it is gorgeously photographed, and the two leads are great.
Far, far, far better of a film than The Odyssey 2026.
It was good.
This is The Return, which is only near the end of Odyssey
I adore both Ralphe and Juliette, but this movie was a letdown…
Susan Sitki gotta disagree. I really enjoyed it.
Probably empty theaters because of the nonexistent marketing budget they evidently must’ve had, as I’m pretty sure these posts are the first any of us are hearing about it – even from some of us who go to a *lot* of movies.
Braeden Roesler it didn’t get a wide distribution. I guess it helps to have a big-name director attached to it. I recently watched it and it was very good
The Return was awesome. I thought the axe scene was the definitive translation.
Excelente movie.
I thought that movie was great! It should have gotten more attention than it did.
God knows how I missed this. I saw reviews but had no idea the screenplay was Edward Bond’s work. He was phenomenal.
Such a great movie
“The Return” is Odysseus. Not the cunning warrior, not the King of Ithaka, not the seaman facing supernatural powers, but the broken man returning home after 20 years. of war and wandering. The movie is made of the rugged landscape and a man trying to find his way. It is the story of Penelope and Telemachus and the ‘suitors’ who make a mockery of his home. It is in the most primordial way, the story of homecoming. Ralph Fiennes is superb, he is utterly believable as the old warrior-King reduced to nothing.
It’s amazing the amount of movies that get made and put out that go under the radar. I’ve never even heard of this movie, but I’ll check it out now for sure
I keep mentioning this movie when it comes to comparisons with Nolan’s version, but everyone else has never heard of it, or they’re comparing other versions and Oh brother where art thou..
The return was beautiful
… i wish Ralph Fiennes made Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but it would have taken 20-years to make, and 2-months to watch.
Great film. I saw it a the cinema in Dallas.
I saw it twice in the theatre, I thought it was brilliant and I loved it.
Excellent movie.
It’s silly to compare the two. One is played/scaled as Greek tragedy, the other as Greek epic adventure. There’s always been room for both approaches.
great movie!
The Return is one of the greatest adaptations for the part of The Odyssey where Odysseus returns.
Manuel Sisneros
One of my favorite movies
To be fair, Nolan avoids digital effects, so the coastline with ships was done with practical effects.
Oh that’s right nobody showed up for that. It was on my list but I didn’t get in theater. Shame on me
I saw this movie being talked about at the same time they started talking about Nolan’s going into production…. Then it disappeared, & I’ve still yet to see it!
10/10
Sounds like Troy: Part 3, but nobody ever made Part 2, hah.
It was so good I can’t bear to watch the Nolan movie