Return

"This is just a giant waste of time. I can't do it anymore." After Kelli (Cardellini) returns home from the war she finds it much harder to adjust then expected. Finding life mundane and pointless she begins to drift. When her husband Mike (Shannon) leaves with the kids she is forced to deal with her problem. There have been many, many movies made about problems returning soldiers experience when trying to adjust to day-to-day life. "Home Of The Brave" is one of the more recent great ones. Like that movie this one deals with how she feels that life is so mundane and boring it begins to affect her relationships with others. The main problem with this one is that it seems to take forever to go anywhere. The acting is great and the story is good but again it is very slow and sometimes hard to stay interested in. I would compare this to the recent "Take Shelter" movie in its pacing and feel. If you liked that movie you will probably like this one too. Overall, a very OK movie that could have been better. I give it a B-.

Careful, subtle, artistic portrait of the inner conflicts and turmoil experienced by a woman soldier on her return home from war. From the beginning of her return to her family we see how there are things seriously troubling her that she herself can't put into words. We watch the external, behavioral effects of these psychological conflicts as she interacts with her husband and children who themselves have also been affected. Which war she returns from is not stated, clearly intentionally to show the viewer that this is not important. There is little external drama in this quiet, sensitive demonstration of the powerful psychological forces stimulated by military service in war, both in the service member and in her family. Liza Johnson gives us a movie that shows us a fictional character and her life yet has in every scene a ring of truth. This is an artistic achievement.

Let me start by saying that I love Linda Cardellini, after watching Freaks and Geeks recently I thought I would watch this to see what she was up to. As I expected, Linda did a fantastic job acting and stole the show, unfortunately, the character who Linda plays is about as inspirational as a dead horse.

This movie is painfully and relentlessly depressing, there's no feel good movie here, there's no optimism behind the horizon. Quite frankly, the only reason i would recommend this movie is for a parent to scare their child out of joining the military.

All the acting is quite good, in fact, it's chillingly realistic, but the slow pace, depressing theme with no reward, and them turning Linda Cardellini into a monster don't fly in my book.

Interesting story,well acted and directed, but leaves you wondering what happened. Is this all there is?

A more or less unreleased little indie that, for the most part, is as generic as its forgettable title. However, it has one big thing going for it and that is the lead performance, from Freaks and Geeks star Linda Cardellini. While many of her co-stars on that one-season-wonder went on to become big stars, Cardellini has done so little. She was Velma in the Scooby Doo movies, for God's sake. She really knocks it out of the part here as a returning Iraq War veteran who can't re-adjust to normal life. Michael Shannon and John Slattery (of Mad Men fame) co-star, but neither has much to do. Cardellini owns every frame of the movie. The script is nothing special, but she makes it worthwhile. Certainly worth a look, especially if you loved Cardellini on Freaks and Geeks and want to see her shine.