The Return

I really enjoyed this film. Rarely am I that conflicted toward liking/disliking characters. My attitude toward the father went from disdain, to confusion, to respect, back to disdain; my reaction toward Ivan varied from seeing him as a child angry with a father who left, to just thinking he was a spoiled brat. Maybe the ambiguity makes the relationships more realistic. The only assertion I can make is that I didn't flat out dislike any of the characters.

The title The Return I first thought referred to the return of the father, and the upset it caused. Rethinking this, though, it could also have to do with the return from the island. The brothers came back completely changed from when they left, and the return home would have been significant.

There were many visual homages to Tarkovsky. The first was the boys flipping through the art book, to find the picture of their father. Almost the same exact scene occurs in The Mirror. Zvyaginstev also used elements in many of his shots. The sense of waiting is seen: in both there is a mother waiting for her husband, looking out into the distance. Finally, there was the Tarkovsky ending: the zooming out, behind trees.

One moment really stayed with me. The part where the father has his hood up, it's raining, and he's yelling at the boys to heave. It was such an ominously, captivating scene.

I was struck by how cool a head was kept by Andrey, especially after his father fell from the tower. I wonder if his trying to get along with his father was more for his mother's sake...I'm sure he felt the same as Ivan to an extent. When he told Ivan to get the axe I get really scared, because a) he'd been really level-headed about this and b) if their father was too heavy to carry, smaller pieces would be easier (I was afraid they were going to dismember him)...I was relieved to see it was used to cut a bough to carry him on. It was kind of heartbreaking to see Ivan, the one who had fought tooth and nail the entire time, be the one running to save his father in the sinking boat, yelling "Papa!" He willingly called him "Papa" for the first time the entire trip.

I think the hue of the movie, with all its blues and grays, had a calming effect- even during really tense scenes (though I tensed greatly when the father fell). The use of water aided in that as well.