38/28

After 20 years, Ulysses finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife imprisoned by suitors vying to become king and his son facing death at their hands. To reclaim his family and all he has lost, Ulysses must rediscover his strength. Third time Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have starred in a film together. They previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and The English Patient (1996). Penelope: How can men find their way to war but not their way home? Ulysses: For some, war becomes home. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multi-faceted pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus during Odysseus’ return to Ithaca, this treatise seemed to explore quite systematically the challenges that many soldiers encounter upon returning from active service, including PTSD and other mental health issues, reintegration into former life with family and society, and flashbacks of memories and pain both endured and inflicted and the resulting internal change that is irreversible. The return is driven by a great casting choice to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster that the two key protagonists bring to significant heights, the latter due to the unique and particular resilience of Penelope and Odysseus in this difficult time of their lives, and without the support of the other. In fact, the two remain quite separated for most of the film, which makes the catharsis more powerful only in the final, more intense and suspenseful, part of the otherwise slower film. Fiennes brings his unique style of portraying suffering to this work, a great extension of his wonderful skill from his adjacent depictions of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair. Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope, as the viewer might be led to expect the two to reunite in the same way they were close in The English Patient, and Pasolini uses this to create further tension in this work for those who have memories of The English Patient. The Patient is vivid. This is an excellent and very relevant work that must be experienced!