Return

Return is ultimately about the inner turmoil that a woman has on her return from her tour of duty. It's nothing incredibly original, but it's written and directed with enough sensibility and delicacy, and a woman being at the front and center may be something different for viewers. It works because it's never emotionally contrived and it never comes off as anything other than heartfelt and personal. What makes this as effective as it was were the performances. The entire supporting cast does some really solid work, but the praise belongs to Linda Cardellini, who gives a wonderfully understated and subtle performance. It's in her silent moments that she resonates the most with the audience, and she absolutely deserves a lot more mentions. She's either on par or better than several of the actresses in contention for awards. This is highly recommended because it deserves to put Cardellini on the spotlight, and I can only hope this gets seen enough in the upcoming months and as a result it gives her more career opportunities.

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.

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.

Wow it is clear that this is Hollywood view and that not one person with creative input in this film has ever served. in the military at all, much less in combat.

It is really an insult to imply everyone's marriage is broken or that all of us suffer from PTSD, when the data show these are small outliers and the average marriage of service personnel is better than people who live in southern California.

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.