The Return

I found the film "The Return" to be a great big mystery. There were many hidden details that popped out to me, and that struck me as funny. The father, who remained unnamed, took me by surprise. I definitely had no clue what this movie would be about until the father sat down at dinner. His actions were immediately felt throughout the room, because he came off as super controlling and scary. As the movie continued, the controlling factor became more prominent. The things that the father would do to his sons were so bizarre, and I couldn't figure out WHY exactly he brought the boys on this trip!

The mother was an interesting character. She seemed like a typical Russian mother, living with her own mother still. Yet the scene when she went to bed was a bit off, and it seemed she didn't want her husband to be home at all.

The father is not easy to describe. He is definitely a negative character, as much as Andrei would argue with me! In my opinion, he only brought along his kids so that he had an alibi for whatever job he was trying to complete in the shed with the little box. He did cruel things to his sons, when he shouldn't even have any control over them. Ivan seemed to understand that notion, and he didn't want his father to have any say in what he ultimately wanted to do.

I didn't think there was enough resolution with the fathers mission, and that may be my only question for this movie. The boys definitely change after the father dies, and I think it occurred to Ivan at that point in time that his father was actually somewhat (in my opinion) trying to connect with him when he ran that far and up that high. Then again, would his father just have punished him? Or would he have actually been nice for once in his life?