The Return is about two brothers who must spent time with their long-absent father. If that summary sounds heart-warming, forget it because The Return is a Russian film so instead of loving bonding, The Return features a war of wills and is weighed down by the influence of events from each character’s unknown past.
I am a fan of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena and Leviathan so naturally I wanted to check out The Return. If you are familiar with Zvyagintsev’s films, you will expect a depiction of a fallen world and multilayered meaning in his imagery and plot, but unfortunately, most of it went over my head in The Return. I’m certain that The Return is brilliant, but unlike Elena and Leviatian, it lost me in translation.
The Return reminded me of I’m Not Scared because the opening scene of children playing has darker implications as the film unfolds. The younger brother has something to prove. I imagine that Zvyagintsev related to the younger brother because of his work with the camera, and he is the real main character. The older brother wants to belong even if that means sacrificing solidarity with his brother. The father wants to reassert his role in their life, but uses the disastrously wrong and sadly familiar tools to do so.
I actually guessed what was going to happen, which was disappointing. I kept thinking about the tyranny of adults over children. Children are vulnerable to the bad decisions of others. Why would the mother just let the father resume his dominant role like nothing happened? It did not feel like a homecoming. It felt like an oppressive resumption of roles and a willful act of pretending that nothing changed.
The Return felt like a psychological damaging Gift of the Magi with all the good intentions, but none of the communication. The Return may be a masterpiece, but I did not get it so if you should probably check out Elena and Leviatian first before you even consider embarking on this challenging work.