Video on Demand — February 2012
Video pick of the month
Return
Linda Cardinelli gives a stirring performance in this intimate portrait of a war vet returned home. Though at first elated to be back with her husband (Michael Shannon, as subtly powerful as ever) and children, Kelli has trouble adjusting back to the quiet day-to-day existence of her small mid-western town. Turning to the bottle, refusing to talk about her experiences in the Middle East, and distancing herself from her family, Kelli tracks a path towards self-destruction, then forms a bond with Bud (Mad Men‘s John Slattery), an unpretentious Vietnam vet. Directed by first-time filmmaker Liza Johnson, Return premiered to acclaim at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Director’s Fortnight. A quiet but powerful look at a damaged woman’s struggle to resume a life that circumstance has rendered all but lost, Return goes beyond generalized notions of PTSD and war trauma to present one damaged woman’s attempts to pull herself back together.
