An Absolutely Ripped Ralph Fiennes Shines in Vicious ‘The Return’

TORONTO, Canada—The Return is full of big classical themes: devotion, guilt, responsibility, jealousy, atonement, and longing. What it delivers that’s unique, however, is the sight of an incredibly ripped Ralph Fiennes slaughtering villainous scoundrels with a blade and bow and arrow.

Once again proving that he’s one of cinema’s most versatile and adventurous actors, Fiennes assumes the role of Homer’s epic hero Odysseus in Uberto Pasolini’s retelling of the Odyssey, whose slow-burn pace adds tremendous heft to its drama and builds intense anticipation for its climax, in which its celebrated headliner erupts with a ferocity that’s breathtaking in its steeliness, its swiftness and—most affecting of all—its sadness.

Written by Pasolini, John Collee, and Edward Bond, The Return (premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival) isn’t hung up on fidelity; only focused on a particular section of its source material, its prime concern is capturing the profound weightiness of its characters’ dilemmas, choices and actions.

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