THE RETURN

“The Return” (Vozvrashchenie), Russian director Andrei Zvyagintsev’s emotion packed coming of age tale, may go down as one of the greatest directorial debuts ever.  It is rare to see a first time director have such an incredible handle on his craft, but Zvyagintsev has created an almost perfect film here, it is such an achievement.  The brilliance is in its simplicity.  

Two young brothers come home one day to find that their father, who had been previously absent from their lives for the past twelve years, has returned.  You can immediately feel the tension in the house, and soon enough the father announces that he is taking the two boys on a two day fishing trip.  During the trip the boys, Andrey and Ivan, are victim to their father’s aggressive style of parenting.  Being used to the caring and protective nature of their mother, this physical and emotional abuse aimed at them, comes as a huge shock to them both.  While the way he treats his sons may appear rough, which it certainly is, the father does it with the best of intentions.  He is trying to strengthen the boys and get them prepared for their future.  Sadly his absence has seemed to keep him out of touch with how to bring up a child, and he seems to be stuck using an outdated technique.  The journey ultimately takes the family to a deserted island where an incident occurs that will change them all for the rest of their lives.

This is such a brilliant film and it is hard to find many faults with it at all.  The whole thing has been impeccably acted by everyone involved.  The two boys particularly give fantastic and nuanced performances that are so different from the other due to the way each boy reacts to their father’s return.  Andrey, played by Vladimir Garin, is the eldest of the two brothers and he seems to have a real need in his life for a father figure and as such is always looking up to his father even when the things he is doing are not very nice.  You can tell he just wants to be loved by this man, and as such will do anything he says.  Meanwhile Ivan, played by Ivan Dobronravov, resists his father and his returning into their lives.  He is always angry, probably due to not understanding why his father left in the first place, and regularly refuses to do anything his father asks.  This results in him suffering the brunt of the abuse as his father tries to teach him the hard lessons in life.  What is interesting about the relationship between the brothers is that once the father re-enters the scene it basically flips.  The opening scene of the film has the two boys standing on top of a tower overlooking the ocean.  Ivan is terrified of heights and doesn’t think he can make the jump into the water below while his older brother has no problem explaining that if he doesn’t follow, he will be taunted a “chicken”, which is what ultimately happens.  From here we can tell that Andrey is the stronger and more dominant of the two, yet when it comes to their father the opposite is true, it is Ivan who makes a stand against him, while Andrey remains passive and continues to take the abuse.

Konstantin Lavronenko is amazing as the tough as nails father.  You can see through his performance just how much he wants to connect with and teach his boys but he just does not know how to do it, and thus goes about it the wrong way.  For much of the film he is a character that is very shut off from the rest of the world, nothing gets in, but there is a beautiful moment near the end of the film when he drops his defences and attempts to show how much his kids mean to him when he realizes he may have pushed Ivan too far.  Suddenly a man that you felt no warmth for and from, out of nowhere comes an incredible compassion which makes the following scenes all the more heartbreaking.  What I love about “The Return” is that it is so ambiguous with a lot of its details, with the majority of these regarding the father.  Nothing is over-explained, but hints are given for the viewer to make up their own mind or to fill in their own back story.  For example, it is never explained where the father has been for the past twelve years, yet there is enough in the film for you to come up with your own theories.  During the film he mentions he doesn’t want to eat fish because he has eaten so much of it in the past.  That could indicate he was away with a Navy division, which would also explain the way he treats his children too, more as soldiers than kids.  There are other theories that could see the father as a criminal who has spent the absent time in jail, whatever is the real reason it is important to note that it doesn’t matter where he was previous, all that matters is how the people react to him now that he is back, and how his return changes their lives.  Another example is the chest that the father digs up on the island, yet we are never privy to what is inside.  The director has stated that the box is a symbol of the father’s love and his past, and again it doesn’t really matter what exactly is in the box.  Something interesting to note is the fact that the father is never given a name in the film, which is symbolic to the fact that the boys do not know him at all, to them he could be a stranger.  Anyway in regards to Lavronenko’s performance, it is very brave because he plays a man who comes across as very unlikable and almost receives no pathos at all.  However he is so incredibly charismatic on the screen that you just cannot take your eyes off of him, he holds so much power and yet there is this sadness behind his eyes.

The other performance I really want to mention is that of Natalya Vdovina who plays the boy’s mother.  She has such a minor part, being in three or four scenes, but her presence resonates throughout the whole film.  By one scene you understand the kind of loving and nurturing parent that she is.  It is the scene at the tower in the beginning when Ivan has been left by his friends and his brother, crying and petrified, unable to move until his mother finds him and is able to coax him down.  She embraces the boy and just protects him, you can tell she is a great mother.  Other than this scene, I believe she has almost no dialogue but just from her body language and facial gestures and the look behind her eyes, she emotes so much.  It is easy to see that she is not happy with her husband’s arrival and all is not well between the two, but you can also see that he dominates her and now that he is back it will always be his way.  Like I said Vdovina is sensational and is able to make a real character out of the mother in just a few short scenes.

Where “The Return” impressed me the most was in its direction and its visual style.  This did not look like the work of a first time director at all.  You can tell that Zvyagintsev just gets it, he understands cinema and what makes it work.  The composition of his shots are something to behold, and his choices are masterful.  Although their works bear little resemblance, I couldn’t  help but think that Zvyagintsev had to be a fan of Alfred Hitchcock.  Hitchcock was a master at knowing exactly where to place the camera to get the best out of the story and I believe the same to be true for Zvyagintsev.  I was particularly reminded of “Vertigo” throughout the story and probably most obviously during the tower scenes in the film.  One shot that really stood out for me was an overhead shot in the opening scene with Ivan on the tower, just showing the audience what exactly he had to be afraid of.  I do not think that this shot would’ve been the easiest to pull off, but it adds so much to the film by its inclusion.  It is obvious that Zvyagintsev and his cinematographer, Mikhail Krichman, are on the same page because there is an appearance of effortlessness to the way the film looks, yet it would have been a hard film to shot.   Another thing you feel that Zvyagintsev is confident with is time.  “The Return” has a very controlled pace, some would say slow, but Zvyagintsev never rushes a moment, he lets it play out to its fullest to achieve the most out of it.  Some viewers may be put off by this style of filmmaking, but I love it, and it is one of those strange things where I find slow paced films seem to move quicker for me.  I know that sounds contradictory but what I mean is that I get so mesmerized and caught up in the film that I never feel its running time and before I know it, it is over.

Overall, “The Return” is a stunning achievement, and one of the greatest directorial debuts I have ever seen.  I said before that it was almost perfect and I stand by that with the only fault I could find being the fact that Ivan sometimes was a bit too bratty for me, there were times I just wanted him to shut the hell up.  This is a coming of age tale like no other, there are times where it works as a psychological drama, and due to the events of the final thirty minutes resonates long after the film has past, as it suddenly comes more into focus just what the whole film is about.  Sadly there is a tragedy associated with “The Return” as the young actor who played Andrey, Vladimir Garin, tragically died soon after shooting, drowning almost in the same spot where the first scene of the film takes place.  Garin died well before the film’s release so he was never able to see the masterpiece he had been a huge part in making.  “The Return” is such a brilliant film and it is easy to recommend, but know going in that the pace will be slow and you will not be treated to answers to all the questions posed in the film, if you are fine with this I am sure you will get out of it what I have.

4.5 Stars.