Return to Sender

I like Rosamund Pike. She is intelligent, good-looking and sexy, and an excellent actress. The problem is, however, we are always aware that she is acting and she never gets into character. All her film personas have zero character development. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, submerges herself completely into the character she is playing, and you have no sense at all that she is acting; she IS the character. Rosamund cannot do that; for all her talent, she seems to refuse to surrender herself to any character of any film. She is always Rosamund Pike. She is a lot like John Wayne in that regard. It really didn't matter what role John Wayne was playing; he was always John Wayne. Rosamund Pike is the female version of John Wayne. This film was trite and a waste of time, but I really do hope to see her capture a character some day; like Charlize Theron in Monster or Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth.

Return to Sender is a rather predictable crime drama. It took me less than half the film to figure out what was happening and what the outcome would be.

Sadly the script is well worn revenge fare that falls short of the mark. For me, this film would have had far more impact had it walked a gentler path of reconciliation and redemption. Of course, this would have meant painting the villain of the piece in a more positive light but that was not to be.

That's not to say this is a poor film. Rosamund Pike does a reasonable job in the lead role. I was surprised to see Nick Nolte. I thought he might have retired. I'm glad he's still acting and for me, his performance was the highlight of this film.

All in all, Return to Sender is watchable but I really can not find any firm foundation on which to recommend it. Five out of ten from me.

Miranda (Rosamund Pike) is a nurse who's got it all it seems -- her own nice house, a loving supportive Dad (Nick Nolte), a stable career about to go the next level. One day, a lecherous stranger William (Shiloh Fernandez) gains access into her house and rapes her. As her neat little world comes crumbling down around her, Miranda embarks on a novel form of "therapy", in the hope of recovering from the brutal trauma she suffered.

A rapist is not only a sexual assaulter, but also the ultimate bully and power-tripper. A rape victim is violated not only sexually and physically, but also psychologically, mentally and even spiritually. What may be a few minutes of torture will haunt a victim for a lifetime.

Powerfully rich in dramatic pain and torment, rape and its aftermath had been the topic of thousands of films and TV shows. Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950) and Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" (1960) are both Oscar-winning classics of World Cinema. "Johnny Belinda" (1948) and"The Accused" (1988) have won Best Actress Oscars for Jane Wyman and Jodie Foster respectively. But no, before you expect too much, this film definitely does not have Oscars in its future.

Lead star Rosamund Pike shot "Return to Sender" BEFORE her Oscar- nominated turn in "Gone Girl". There is a lot of her "Gone Girl" performance here as well -- the subtle mysterious boiling under her cool-as-ice exterior. The strange script makes her do a lot of illogically unexpected, supposedly therapeutic activities, and Pike does them with her game face straight on. Seeing her make these puzzling decisions, we are as frustrated as her father Mitchell was in the film.

Shiloh Fernandez was clearly up to no good the moment we see him on screen. He has got a raw roguish look about him that makes him work as this vile character. Nick Nolte is now all grandfatherly and Santa Claus-like with his white beard and body heft, playing MIranda's father Mitchell. This is so unlike how I last remember him during his prime in the 1990s in film like "Cape Fear" or "The Prince of Tides."

Watching "Return to Sender" felt like watching three different short films which were just tenuously connected to each other. The final act was so predictable yet still so maddening because it never really showed us clearly what happened. We will be expected to interpret the scene in our own way. I am sure those who have invested time to follow the movie to this point may not exactly relish this disappointing ending. 4/10.

Return to Sender did have some potential, a subject that is hard-hitting and easy to relate to and Rosamund Pike and Nick Nolte are watchable in a lot of their work. Return to Sender has some decent assets, but overall is pretty messy and like a missed opportunity.

Pike is nowhere near as good as her deservedly Oscar-nominated performance in Gone Girl (a far superior film, no matter how polarising it is, and Amy is much more interestingly written than Miranda), but she still plays the role with charisma and an appropriate iciness. Shiloh Fernandez has his unsure moments but mostly suitably sleazy, but the film's best performance comes from Nick Nolte, whose sympathetic performance gives a glimmer of emotional backbone and his character is the one character and asset that is halfway credible. Return to Sender is reasonably well-filmed too and fits the atmosphere well with some nice shots.

The rest of the cast reads of acting like wooden marionettes, and none of the characters are fleshed out are often underwritten. Apart from some of the camera work, the production values are generally too TV-film quality and the direction is lazy and confused, showing a lot of inexperience in the genre, a lack of suspense and a lack of ability to make the narrative cohesive. The script is illogical, predictable and completely lacking in realism, the way it flows and is delivered also never feels natural. The story is all over the place and doesn't know what it wants to be, it does agreed feel like three different films and it does little with the second and third acts, the first act actually does have a little tension and some genuine sympathy for Miranda.

However, the character study second act has some far too pedestrian and lazy pacing, far too wooden and underdeveloped characterisation (with the exception of Nolte) and emotional impact is minimal (only provided by Nolte). And the third revenge act is sorely devoid of tension or suspense, increasing predictability to the extent that you're exclaiming 'we knew it!' and suffers from Miranda's actions not being believable for a second. The ending is very rushed and even the open feel felt abrupt and under-explained, it is also rather brutal and any sympathy felt for Miranda in the first act is completely diminished here.

Overall, messy (with the biggest offender being the story) and a missed opportunity, with its moments (the performances of Pike, Nolte and Fernandez, some nice shots and a decent first act). 4/10 Bethany Cox

RATED 7/10 Language: English Source: Amazon Prime

Good psychological thriller... it was nicely paced and cast is too good. It is nor perfect but it holds the audience good enough. One time watchable.