38/27
After 20 years, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife captured by suitors vying to become king, and his son facing death at their hands. In order to bring back his family and everything he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength. For the third time, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are acting together in a film. They previously worked together in Hurricane Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996).. Penelope: How can people find their way to war but not find their way home? Odysseus: For Some, War Becomes Home.. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multifactorial pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus during Odysseus’ return home to Ithaca, this treatise seemed to fairly systematically explore the challenges many soldiers face upon returning from active duty , including PTSD and other mental health problems, reintegration into one’s former life with family and society, and retrospective memories of pain suffered and inflicted, and the resulting inner change that is irreversible. The return is powered by a great casting to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster ride on which two key protagonists ride to significant heights, the latter thanks to the unique and special endurance of Penelope and Odysseus in this difficult period of their lives, and without each other’s support. In fact, the two are quite separated during much of the build-up, which only makes the catharsis more powerful in the otherwise slower-paced film’s most intense, thriller-like later section. Fiennes brings his unique style of portraying suffering to this work – a great extension of his wonderful skills from his adjacent portrayals of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope as the viewer could be somewhat tricked into feeling and hoping that the two will reunite in a similar way as they were close during The English Patient, and Pasolini takes advantage of this to build additional tension in this work in those whose memory of the English patient is vivid. This is a great and very relevant work that must be experienced!