THE RETURN
US, 2006, 85 minutes, Colour.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter O’ Brien, Sam Sheppard, J.C. MacKenzie?, Kate Beahan.
Directed by Asif Kapadia.
A modest ghost story with minimal violence and very few effects. Nevertheless, it works well, more as a psychological drama. The direction is by British born AIF Kapai whose first feature was the striking Indian-set, The Warrior.
The setting is Texas, a rather unflattering Texas with dreary open stretches of landscape, with enormous factories, dingy hotels and bars and a mysterious house and barn.
The story opens with a little girl who has been in an accident. She is at a fair with her father (Sam Shepard) when she is suddenly terrified and hides from a strange man who seems to appear to her. Move to the present and the little girl is now Sarah Michelle Gellar, a more than competent executive who takes on a job that returns her to Texas to overcome her fears and try to find her real identity.
In fact, she is Joanna. But, she keeps having blackouts and visions. She seems to be trying to understand some events in a bar that recur in her imagination. Arriving in Texas brings on more visions and a need to return to a town which appears in her childhood drawings. She also sees a vision of a strange woman in her mirror.
You will probably work out what is happening to Joanna before she does, but that makes it all the more interesting. What will she do when she discovers what has happened to her, when she discovers the mystery of the strange woman as well as the laconic stranger (Peter O’Brien) she has glimpsed in her visions and who turns out to be real?
There are lots of disparate pieces but, eventually, Joanna and the audience put them together and the ending makes sense in a ghostly truth-and-vengeance kind of way.
1.An interesting and entertaining ghost story? Plausible? Psychological study? The modest scope and aims?
2.The Texas settings, the open countryside, the towns, homes, factories, houses, barns? Real? Eerie?
3.The creating of the mood, the range of colours, washed-out, bright for the flashbacks? Editing and pace? Musical score?
4.The structure: the focus on Joanna as a young girl, reference to the accident, information about her past, her appearance, the man and her fears?
5.The present, her efficiency at her job, the rival, the boss and his giving her the mission, driving to Texas, overcoming her fears, contacting her father and Michelle, the plan, driving, the changes with the radio, experiencing the crash, waking in the field, going to the factory, completing the mission successfully? Meeting Michelle, the bar? Her being disturbed, going to the toilet, the image of the bar, the fight, the man and noticing him? Her mutilating herself? Her worries about her identity?
6.Joanna’s father, a good man, welcoming her, her staying the night? Overcoming her fear of Texas, looking at the drawings, wanting him to tell her about the visit to La Salle, her decision to go? Meeting Bella, taking the room? Going to the bar, her rival accosting her, Terry coming to her defence? His bashing the man? The townspeople gathering around him and ordering him out? Her watching? Seeking Terry out, going to into his house, his criticism of her? Her confiding in him? Back at the room, the fear in the night, the intrusion, going under the bed, wanting to get the knife? Her moving out?
7.Terry’s story, coming across the dead woman, the mystery, his being accused? Joanna and her going to the garage, her getting the knife in the old rusted car, the man at the garage pursuing her, her running quickly after the crash? His catching her in the barn? The build-up to terror?
8.Terry, leaving, returning, rescuing Joanna, the struggle, Joanna with the knife, killing the assailant? Terry’s explanations?
9.Terry and Joanna in the car, the flashbacks? Anne’s story, the assault in the bar, the audience revisiting the sequences through having seen them through Joanna’s eyes? Culminating at the crossroads, the accident? Joanna and her dying, her father cradling her, her coming to life again? Terry and Anne, Anne’s death? Her spirit going into Joanna?
10.A satisfactory explanation of the ghostly identity within Joanna? Her lack of memory, her restlessness, her visions, the truth? Anne wanting the truth to emerge, vengeance? Joanna and her future?
