A soldier returns to her family, friends, and old job after a tour of duty, though she finds herself struggling to find her place in her everyday life.
Reversing his Take Shelter role, Michael Shannon convinces as her grounded husband and Mad Men’s John Slattery offers good support as a fellow vet. But this is Cardellini’s film, and she dominates with a terrific, tough-minded turn.
Johnson is good at pulling evocative images from the domestic settings though, and overall Return is a fine example of solid independent filmmaking done right.
A debut of sober distinction.
Cardellini holds the restless centre of Liza Johnson's patient, precise drama, which brims with quiet disaffection.
As hounourable as its intentions are, the feeling of been there, done that pervades.
Its low-key rigour and understated melancholy won't be to everyone's taste, but Cardellini's performance – reflective, distressed, simmering – is eloquent testimony of a soul irrevocably changed by the experience of war.
If character-based drama is your thing, this offers food for thought.
This is a quiet, honourable, carefully paced little independent movie, like a Sundance Institute coda to The Deer Hunter.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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