Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent but underrated film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

That's why i love European movies. they focus on the story, acting, cinematography; natural cinematography without usual Hollywood special effects and explosives, making you sigh after the end credits. What is more beautiful than seeing the water and the blue sky, feeling the air on the way the actors feel it. Really, camera angles could make difference, making the audience in the seat of the actors. What I mean is apparent in the scenes where the children use their camera and view sights. You feel shaken hands while taking photos like you do, see the world like they see it around. It gets bothering at times these shaky hands, but it get you in the mood of the movie. Concerning the acting, it's solid, and the two boys are superb. The movie does not contain much dialogue, so the actors depended on their facial expressions which they succeeded in having the right ones in every scene, expressing how they feel towards their father. The plot is vague in some concerns and not everything is revealed. It is about the return of a father to his two children after 12 years. He took them in a journey to a deserted island. What special about The Return is its various interpretations. It appeals to all countries and all ages according to your interpretation, whether it is politically, socially or even religiously. Believe me, you will find what concerns you in this powerful and flexible movie, realizing that The Return is more than the return of a father.

What constitutes a typical art-house film may be difficult to describe, but if you are confronted with one, it is immediately clear. It has something to do with the quiet way in which the story is portrayed and with the original scenes shot on location. This film excels with no doubt with its view on vast landscapes and serene lakes. We travel together with a father who has suddenly reappeared after twelve years and his two children in a car through a desolate area on their way to a mysterious island where the story unfolds. The two sons respond to the reunification in their own way, with the oldest inclining to idolization and the youngest to unconcealed skepticism. That the father still believes he has the right to authority over his children is a dangerous miscalculation. The children act sublime especially the youngest, from the beginning his relationship with the eldest is difficult but in the end they are connected through their shared destiny, even more than the development of the bond with their father it is about the relationship between the brothers who need to deal with the newly created situation. Little is explicitly clear about the motives of the father, but at a certain crucial moment it is easy to guess, but it also appears that they only partly have to do with re-establishing a bond with his children but show a lot of egoistic traits. Once you have crossed the Styx there is no way back.

This movie is about two Russian brothers (Andrei and Ivan) who lived their entire childhood without a father. They live with their mother and grandmother. They don't know their father except from a faded photograph. Their father unexpectedly returns after being absent for 12 years. He takes the boys on a vacation with him, apparently to make up for the lost time. While Andrei is delighted for reuniting with his father, Ivan is less than convinced. Their father is mysterious, reserved, emotionally distant, has difficulty in showing affection and shows some disturbing methods to punish the boys, such as leaving Ivan alone in a bridge for hours and scaring Andrei with an axe, but apparently methods like these are commonly used by the russians to deal with their kids. Russian can be harsh people. There is, however, a tragedy in store for the father at the ending.It's a good movie. Its story is interesting, there are some haunting scenes and the sceneries are natural, authentic and beautiful, but the pacing is slow, so it requires some patience to watch it. All it lacks is answers to some questions, such as: Why was the father gone for so long? Why didn't he stay in touch with his kids? What is he up to? Why doesn't he talk about him and what he does?The acting performances are good: Vladimir Garin (who sadly died at such a tender age, shortly after finishing his role) as Andrei, Ivan Dobronravov as Ivan, Konstantin Lavronenko as the boys's father and Natalia Vdovina as the boy's mother. Speaking of the mother, she is beautiful. Russian women are known for their beauty.Title in Portugal: 'O regresso'.

This slow-paced, introspective thriller of a coming-of-age story will leave you contemplative and stricken. The movie begins with a sweeping view of the sea floor, where we see a sunken ship (foreshadowing the film's ending). From there we're introduced to a group of adolescent boys leaping off of a tower and into the water. Ivan, a few years younger than the rest of the boys, is immobilized with fear, and it isn't until hours later that his mother is able to rescue him from his fears and coax him down the tower. Later, after a fight with his brother Andrei (presumably Ivan's only link to the other boys), Ivan is surprised to find that his absent father of twelve years has finally returned home for reasons left ambiguous. Ivan more than his brother Andrei is wary of his father and challenging of his role as a parent as the three embark what is supposed to be short trip camping. Throughout the trip, Ivan is emotionally distant. We're treated to his point of view as he gazes at the natural scenery of the road in a moment where Zvyagintsev works Ivan's character into his cinematographic style. We're able to empathize with both brothers, as Andrei is quick to accept his newfound father that never was and Ivan is closed off emotionally and slow to accept someone who didn't need him for 12 years back into his life. There are no firm lines drawn by Zvyagintsev, no character is portrayed irrationally or unrealistically. Later, after a night in tents where Ivan is brought to tears from his father's harsh ways and the overall gravity of him returning after all this time, the father announces that the two will be traveling further. The brothers are made to row a wooden boat to a far off deserted island for no discernible reason, where the last act of the film takes place. Here the father teaches the two about survival. He leaves the two momentarily to unearth a mysterious metal box (an object evocative of Tarkovsky's room in "Stalker" due to its unexplained significance and shroud of ambiguity). After the two brothers take a prolonged voyage exploring a nearby abandoned ship, Andrey is confronted by his father for spending hours with their wooden boat, and for the first time his cold discipline manifests itself into physical violence as he slaps Andrey as he tries to pin the blame on his brother. It's then that Ivan reveals to his father that he had stolen his knife while he was off digging up the box, and threatens him with it before running off into the woods. Ivan flees to the top of a tower, where he claims he'll jump if his father doesn't leave him. Trying to circumnavigate the door to the roof that Ivan locked in his flight, the father climbs the side of the tower and says "Ivan, my son" before the plank of wood he was held onto breaks and he's sent hurdling to his immediate death. The two drag his body back to the boat and row it to the mainland. It's then that the boat begins to sink and Ivan screams "Papa!" as the body lowers into its final resting place. This is the first instance where we see Ivan using a paternal pronoun towards his father, and it can be concluded that the father's tragic display of love for his son is what it took for Ivan to accept him. Perhaps in another film, the father would have successfully ascended the tower and hugged Ivan like his mother did at the beginning. The last we see is a montage of photographs taken by the boys of each other along the course of their journey. The complex, multilateral approach to a father-son relationship that Zvyagintsev takes in this film rebukes cliché and creates a definitive signature that will stick with you. This film separates itself and demands your attention long after the credits roll. While it may be seen as only barely palatable due to its pacing and lack of substantive events that would string along an audience in a more attention-craved film, "The Return" will intrigue you and make you think more than would otherwise be possible.