46/20
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife imprisoned by suitors vying to become king, and his son facing death at their hands. To reclaim his family and all that he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength. This is the third time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have starred together in a film. They previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can men find their way to war but not their way home? Odysseus: For some, war becomes home. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multi-faceted pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus as Odysseus returns home to Ithaca, this treatise seemed to explore quite systematically the challenges faced by many soldiers returning from active duty, including PTSD and other mental health issues, reintegration into their previous lives with family and society, and flashbacks to memories and pain, both endured and inflicted, and the resulting internal change that is irreversible. The return is fueled by a great casting choice to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster ride on which the two main characters ride to considerable heights, the latter due to the exceptional and special resilience of both Penelope and Odysseus during this difficult time in their lives, and without the support of each other. In fact, the two are kept quite far apart for most of the action, which only serves to heighten the catharsis in the otherwise slower-moving, intensely thrilling latter part of the film. Fiennes brings his own unique style of portraying suffering to this work – a great extension of his excellent skills in his adjacent portrayals of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope, because the viewer is tricked into feeling and hoping that these two characters will connect in the same way that they were close together throughout The English Patient, and Pasolini uses this to build additional tension in this work for those whose memories of The English Patient are still vivid. This is a great and very relevant work that needs to be experienced!