23/15
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife imprisoned by suitors vying to become king, and his son awaiting death at his hands. To regain his family and all that he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength. For the third time, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have appeared together in a film. They previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can men find a way to war, but not a way home? Ulysses: For some, war becomes home. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multifaceted 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 of former lives with family and society, and flashbacks of memories and pains, both endured and inflicted, and the resulting internal change that is irreversible. The return is driven by a great casting choice to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster ride in which the two main characters travel considerable heights, the latter due to the unique and special resilience of Penelope and Odysseus during this difficult period in their lives, and without mutual support. In fact, the two are kept quite separate from each other for much of the action, which only makes the more intense catharsis in the later part more intense and thriller-like in an otherwise slower-paced film. Fiennes brings his unique style of portraying suffering to this work – a great extension of his great skills from his adjacent depictions of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for the role of Penelope because the viewer can be led to feel and expect these two characters to connect in the same way they were close to each other in The English Patient, and Pasolini uses this to create additional tension in this work with those whose memories of The English Patient are vivid. This is an excellent and very important work that must be experienced!