The Return

As the poster says, this film is reminiscent of Andrei Tarkovsky's works. It differs in one huge respect, in that the first 3 minutes of the film contain more talking than in a 4 hour Tarkovsky film. Which means that this film is more accessible to the general public than anything Tarkovsky put out. (Brilliant filmmaker that he was, natch, his films are never easy to comprehend, or stay awake during.) This is Andrei Zvyagintsev's first film, and it is surprisingly masterful for a first-time director. The father of two boys returns after many years away and they go on a vacation together to a remote island. He is clearly "of the military" and treats his sons as he would treat soldiers, something that obviously doesn't work after so many years away. Of course there's a tragedy, and of course I'm not going to tell you what it is, because you should see the film. For the acting, for the cinematography and for the Tarkovsky-like enigmatic stillness. The boys are excellent actors, one more of a brown-noser, the other more of a punk. Your affections for either switch constantly throughout the movie, a testament to the quality of their acting. The cinematography is all about long shots, mostly of the landscape, whether that's endless miles of Russian farmland or endless miles of ocean. Most of these sequences (if you can call them sequences when most of them are single shots) are as near silent as possible, reminiscent of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring. Plot is certainly not as important as the general feeling you get as you watch and interpret, and there are any number of interpretations you can make. As the film unwinds, it becomes more and more mysterious -- Where did the father come from? What is his job? Why is he taking the boys with him on a vacation that isn't a vacation? The silent cinematography is a big part of that mystery. And the ending shots (which are suggestive of The 400 Blows) leave you wondering, which completes the film's ambience.

original title: Vozvrashcheniye
year: 2003
length: 105 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376968/combined