This cycle plays out again and again throughout Return, as Kelli acts without considering the ramifications or the consequences of what she’s doing. Instead, she has to deal with her feelings of isolation and redundancy now that she’s been reinserted into a world that was operating fine without her. She projects these feelings onto the reality of her new life at home, and then through her behavior, forces those around her to validate her perception of herself as an outsider and an underdog.
Throughout the film, Kelli insists that nothing happened to her while she was in the Middle East, and that others had it much worse. She repeats this story dozens of times to friends, family and strangers even as they plead with her to open up about the horrors she’s seen in war. Despite her protestations, Kelli is obviously attempting to cope with something through heavy drinking, and Johnson’s film suggests that it is not war alone that has changed and traumatized this woman, but rather a combination of her transition home, the fact that life has continued to go on without her and that she has lost her place in it.
Return is an unexpected coming home film. It is not melodramatic or brutal and traumatizing, but quiet, psychological and subtle. The drama is completely internalized within Kelli, and the viewer is only permitted to view the ways in which this inner struggle manifests itself in the destruction she creates around her. Because so much of the film’s story and drama are created in the mind of Kelli, at times the motives and actions of the characters can seem forced and confusing, but solid acting from a great cast carries the film forward. As a result, Return is a cerebral, thought-provoking film that gives a fresh point of view to a well-worn story.
Director: Liza Johnson
Writer: Liza Johnson
Starring: Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon, John Slattery
Release Date: Feb. 10, 2012 (limited)