“The Return” Directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev – 2003

“The Return” Directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev – 2003

In watching “The Return”, I really kept hoping some form of major discipline would happen to the boys or at least a story were all of their hard work will pay off later on down the road. For example, the western film Karate Kid (original film in particular). In The Karate Kid, we notice how Danielson is waxing a car and he feels that this is so lame and will not really teach him anything about what he was there for. As we discover, those entire lame workouts ARE for a reason and Danielson learned just that eventually. In The Return, I was thinking of a similar outcome, but was taken in a different direction.

The brother had a great deal of character building happening throughout this film. From the very beginning we notice how things were going and then they wake up to father is home and now the boy and father are off to a trip. The home had virtually no decoration and the curtains and carpeting were slim to none in any room, hallway or space shown in frame. The clothing were of dark material unless you see mothers, she wore an off white colored outfit and her part in the film was short.

When the boys had taken off with dad and had gotten into a bit of a jam with the car and then later with father falling to his death, I can’t help but applaud the determination they had shown to make sure that this guy, they called father, made it back home with them. It took a lot of guts, strength and stamina to do all of that, even when no one really knew each other long outside the brother knowing each other the longest. It’s just too bad that they had forgotten to tie the boat up prior to walking away from it, maybe they would have discovered that mysterious box that father put in the boat compartment. At first, I thought the dad was a creep but when you look into his eyes the moment he looked around that wooden board (at the top of the tower, prior to his fall) he was sincerely reaching out to his son.