The Return

It is easy to see that Andrei Zvyagintsev was influenced alot by Tarkovsky. The overall atmosphere created in the film seemed to be one of confusion. You didn't really know whether to be angry or happy. The movie changed sides several times. Their was sharp contrast between the two boys and the father brought that contrast out even more. Ivan was very irritable and stubborn. Andrey seemed to be more mature, but by that I mean that he was able to keep a cool head with his father and he showed some respect for him.

St. Petersburg is not portrayed to be quite the same in this film as in Brother. There are some similarities that I noticed. It tends to show people sort of out and about, children rough housing just like the "kids" out with Kat in her little area of the city. However I sort of felt like this film showed the city as much more isolated, there wasn't alot of people out on the streets.

The mother doesn't seem to be too excited that her husband is back. I think that she is pissed off that she has had to raise her kids for the past twelve years without him. You don't really see any type of excitement from her or spark between them. I felt like they were like a divorced couple getting together to exchange the children. The house seems very plain and simple. The bed that the couple sleeps in is like a one person cot. I think that the mother cares alot about her children from the first scene that she comes into.

The father is very hard to describe. He is a guy that you can't really break down to a science. There seems to be many different varying aspects of him that kind of throw around your feelings towards him. At many times during the film, I had extreme hatred of the father. Finding out that he had been gone for twelve years. When he hits and beats his children, and just the way that he think that he deserves their respect and doesn't try to earn it. On the other hand, there are alot of times where I second guess those reasons that make him a bad guy and I think maybe he is just trying to reconnect with his kids. He atleast came back, so maybe he missed them. Maybe he is just looking for a second chance. He might be attempting to make up for it by taking them on the trip, even though it seems like there is some sort of personal gain in it for him besides spending time with his kids. Ivan is very irritated by his father and is stubborn to him. Sometimes he even doubts that it is his father. Andrey is much more obedient to the father but is easily persuaded by Ivan to join his side. In this way I think that the father brings the boys together.

We never find out what was in the box that the father goes to the island for and digs up. We also never find out if he needed the boys on the trip for some reason or if he just wanted to spend time with them. I think the director really wanted you to be able to develop your own opinion of the father without these pieces of information. It creates alot more debate and discussion. It allows your own thoughts, ideas, and feelings to be created. He didn't want to just lay it all out in front of you, he wants you to make of it what you see and feel.

Very good movie, to say the least. It was a very artistic, but it was also very entertaining for me. I thought right from the beginning that the first two scenes or days seemed alot like journal or diary entries, then to my suprise, that is how the rest of the movie went. It would kind of jump into certain parts of days, where something interesting happened, then we could leave the scene and move ahead several hours to something else prominant.

I enjoyed this film very much.