The Return
Bleecker Street Media | Release Date: December 6, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistAnkit JhunjhunwalaSep 14, 2024
The Return is one of the few instances where we wish for more fiery blood and guts rather than less. Even so, this is a superior rendering of a well-worn tale Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisDec 5, 2024
Less an epic poem than a showcase for two of cinema’s finest actors, The Return is visually bleak and emotionally gripping. Read full review
85
Paste MagazineLacy BaugherDec 9, 2024
By telling a decidedly bare-bones version of a story known for its scale and excess, The Return’s harsh landscape, stark costume choices, and violent undertones highlight the all-too-human struggles at its center in ways that make its ancient source material feel brand new. Read full review
85
TheWrapSteve PondSep 14, 2024
The pacing is far from what you’d expect in a Hollywood movie with this much action, which can make the film feel longer than its 116 minutes. But that rich languor and love of words is earned, and do you really want to tell Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche to hurry up? No. You. Do. Not. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeApr 14, 2025
Both are terrific, but Binoche is the standout. Read full review
80
The TimesKevin MaherApr 11, 2025
It’s a testament to Binoche and Fiennes that the heat they create on screen is intense enough to solder any cracks. Their scenes together are riven with pain and resentment yet bound by love. These are two of the greatest living actors nailing two of the most iconic roles in Western culture. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 11, 2025
Interestingly, it has the crowd-pleasing energy of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator films. There is real sinew here. Read full review
80
Screen RantFerdosa AbdiDec 6, 2024
We get two influential actors reuniting on the big screen in a film that is comparable to their acting gifts. Read full review
80
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 9, 2024
As tender and somber as it is thrilling, The Return proves a sword-and-sandals saga rooted in life’s biggest issues, all of them written on the unforgettable countenance of its illustrious star. Read full review
75
Original-CinKaren GordonDec 5, 2024
Pasolini has taken a classic, set thousands of years In the past, and very subtly pulled out themes about masculinity and power, about the psychological and emotional toll of war and PTSD, and its way of changing a person’s way of being. These are things that, unfortunately, still speak to the modern world. Read full review
70
The Irish TimesTara BradyApr 9, 2025
At its best The Return recalls Pier Paolo Pasolini’s sublime, pared-back Medea, even if the gritty realism of Uberto Pasolini (no relation) does leave one yearning for the magic of that earlier film and the source material. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshDec 6, 2024
There’s a hushed profundity, especially in Binoche and Fiennes’ performances, expressing the kind of unspeakable grief and trauma one brings home from the battlefield, and what those who remain home suffer in absence. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerDec 5, 2024
Though the stately pace can be frustrating, its anti-war stance ultimately feels modern and urgent. Read full review
70
ColliderJason GorberSep 16, 2024
With bold performances, a strong vision for the source material, and a wise decision to focus on this under-represented portion of this narrative, The Return makes for an effective character piece that proves these stories are not only timeless, they’re as timely as ever. Read full review
70
Screen DailyNikki BaughanSep 14, 2024
The film moves at a languid pace, with long periods of silence, and there’s not a great deal of action until a final cathartic orgy of violence. Yet this world is richly drawn. Read full review
65
LooperReuben BaronSep 17, 2024
The power of Fiennes' and Binoche's performances, as well as the strength of the classic tale itself, allow "The Return" to build into something both entertaining and meaningful in its final act. Read full review
60
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsApr 11, 2025
From its slow build-up comes a rousing finale, with Penelope setting an impossible feat of strength and agility as the benchmark for her new marriage material (as it should be!). Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeyApr 11, 2025
The headline draw remains the headline draw – and sometimes it’s enough for two lead actors to animate, complicate and enrich a project by lending it all the mysterious gravity you could ask for. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinApr 10, 2025
Aka ‘The Odyssey: The Bits Without The Monsters’. Not that that should put you off, as Binoche and Fiennes bring some raw, fleshy humanity to this mythic text, giving it a modern twist that balances the film’s flaws. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriDec 6, 2024
The Return works neither as a CliffsNotes version of The Odyssey nor as its own stand-alone tale. But it does remind us that Ralph Fiennes is an immortal. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckSep 19, 2024
Director/co-screenwriter Uberto Pasolini (Still Life, Nowhere Special) strips the tale to its bare essentials, resulting in a stark, solemnly paced experience that viewers will find either enervating or thrilling. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMarshall ShafferDec 9, 2024
The Return may render its mythological figures lifelike through flesh and blood, but nowhere inside that viscera lies a beating heart. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzDec 6, 2024
The Odyssey is one of my favorite stories of all time, and I was looking forward to "The Return," but it never rises above the level of an honorable but misguided good try. Read full review
42
The Film StageEthan VestbySep 14, 2024
The Return looks rather cheap: there’s a real lack of pictorial beauty here, even if you can tell it was shot in a nice location. That wouldn’t be an issue if the prestige-television grit applied to this oft-told tale had a little more passion. Read full review
40
iChristina NewlandApr 11, 2025
The twisty machinations are a bit too familiar, the pacing a tad too glacial before Odysseus’s revenge finally happens, the performances uniformly good but rather self-serious. Read full review
40
The GuardianRadheyan SimonpillaiSep 14, 2024
Stripping the narrative of its gods and monsters, and almost two-thirds of the chapters, is great but the vacuum isn’t filled with much more than his two magnetic leads and consistently sumptuous cinematography. The Return is gorgeous to behold, but there just isn’t enough there. Read full review
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