by Nick Nitkowski

My introduction to “The Odyssey” is not quite in the way you would expect. I actually never read the poems by Homer in school. It was never even taught to me in any class that I can recall. My introduction to “The Odyssey” was in the form of a concept musical called “EPIC: The Musical” which has since gained huge popularity on TikTok from its creator Jorge Rivera-Herrans. A musical concept that he has released in sections, or “Sagas”, over the course of two years or so. With rumors of his final Saga being released before the end of this year, I found it very interesting when Bleeker Street announced that they were releasing their version of “The Odyssey” in theaters focusing on Odysseus’s return to Ithaca called “The Return”. Well, that certainly doesn’t sound Epic, but nonetheless, I was curious to see this movie because of my fondness for the musical. So how was “The Return”?

In a word… lacking. To me, it truly lacked that epic tone that I was hoping to get from a movie like this. The biggest issue was that it felt like it was constantly trying to stretch out its runtime to the last possible second. Landing at a runtime of just under two hours long, I really felt it. It didn’t help that there wasn’t much to fill the time with in terms of story. So, the only thing they could do was draw out scenes for seemingly no reason other than to reach a certain runtime quota. 

Were there any positives in the film? The only good thing that I can say about this movie is that some of the locations looked nice. They really gave an Ithaca feel to the film. I’d also say that the costumes seemed passable for the world presented on screen and the movie, while feeling slow, did manage to hold my attention. And the final good thing that I can say about this film is that Ralph Fiennes was quite possibly in the best shape he could be in for a man his age. He’s over 60 years old and is in much better shape than I am currently. I can only hope to look 5% close to that physique when I reach his age. 

Speaking of Ralph Fiennes, this is his second movie this year. The first film was “Conclave” where he played Father Lawrence which is expected to get some award recognition. And then out of nowhere, “The Return” comes out where he plays Odysseus from the Odyssey. I don’t expect this film to get the same recognition. I believe he gave a great performance in “Conclave”, but unfortunately, his performance here was less than stellar. He essentially had the same facial expression and tone of voice throughout the whole film, aside from perhaps a scene or two. He tries to commit to the role, even by giving the audience an eyeful of Voldemort’s wand, but it just fell flat to me. Especially in a brief moment when he gets attacked by a dog.

The other actors in the film were okay, I suppose. No one in the entire cast really stood out to me. I was mainly trying to figure out who was who among the Suitors without attempting to look it up on IMDb. Aside from the lead, we have Juliette Binoche as Penelope, the estranged wife of Odysseus, Charlie Plummer as Telemachus, son of Odysseus, Marwan Kenzari as Antinous, the conniving-minded mastermind seeking the hand of Penelope, and a bunch of secondary characters. But like I said, no one’s performance in this movie stood out to me at all. 

There is some action in this movie. I’d say there were all of two scenes of action in whole the movie. One briefer than the other. And while the action was decent enough, nothing overly special to look at, I feel like it would have been better if the musical score was different. Whoever conducted the musical score for this film, definitely didn’t do the best job. It just didn’t fit within the tone of the moment. What also hurt the film was an overabundant lack of music during most other scenes in the movie. 80% of this movie is met with silence in terms of musical score which consequently made the padded runtime feel longer than two hours.

Overall, “The Return” felt like nothing more than an attempt to capitalize on something that has become popular in a different medium. I kid you not that Bleeker Street has been heavily promoting this movie on TikTok and they had to never incorporate one of the “EPIC: The Musical” songs in their TikTok promotional video, which almost cements my previous statement. But sadly, on its own, it’s nothing more than a forgettable, drawn-out slog of an attempt at something epic that it ultimately fails to be. Any studio company would probably be better suited to make a film adaptation of the concept musical itself that everyone already admires greatly. But this film will not likely withstand the test of time, unlike “The Odyssey” itself, and is one that I won’t Return to anytime soon. I will most likely forget about this film entirely in no time.

2 stars