With the exception of Touching the Void, no film released on Tampa Bay area screens this year boasts the emotional intensity and spiritual resonance of The Return. Andrey Zvyagintsev's debut feature, a small but beautifully assembled drama, is reminiscent of the work of a countryman, Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky. The 2003 festival favorite is powerful in its simplicity: A gruff, distracted man (Konstantin Lavronenko) suddenly, inexplicably returns to his family after being away for 12 years. He promptly decides to take his sons on a long trip to an unnamed destination. Andrey (Vladimir Garin), 15, is puppyish in his devotion to his long-lost parent, but little brother Vanya (Ivan Dobronravov) is openly resentful.
The journey amounts to a quest, as the dysfunctional trio travel by car, boat and foot to reach a small shed, where the physically abusive, seemingly hard-hearted father digs up a metal box. The return trip home doesn't proceed quite as planned.
The director elicits naturalistic performances from the three lead actors, and his cinematographer, Mikhail Crichman, uses water - bitter rain, an ominous lake - as a virtual fourth character. The screen is filled with allegorical images: In one striking sequence, a shot of two fish, flopping around inside a plastic bag, is followed by a glimpse of the siblings, cocooned inside a pup tent. Despite the film's moody atmospherics, the denouement is shocking and entirely unpredictable; it adds yet another, final layer of mystery to a beguiling, carefully observed drama. Grade: A
- PHILIP BOOTH, Times correspondent
A rewarding resurrection
Monty Python's Life of Brian (R) (94 min.) - Director Terry Jones freely admits that re-releasing this 1979 comedy months before its actual 25th anniversary of release is a cash-in proposition. Since The Passion of the Christ became a hit, bringing back a spoof of such biblical proportions is exactly what fans of the irreverent Monty Python comedy troupe should expect.
The late Graham Chapman plays Brian Cohen, born on Christmas Day in the manger next door to Jesus and therefore thought by some confused folks to be a messiah. Thirty years after that false celebrity wears off, Brian becomes leader of the Judean People's Front, an anti-Roman faction. This occasionally hilarious film takes potshots at organized religion, blind faith, even the post-Star Wars boom in science fiction, all in the troupe's trademark style. It also includes Monty Python's only hit song among its many silly ditties, the crucifixion tune, Bright Side of Life.
Anyone seeking reasons to be offended will be satisfied, with the exception of those who notice that Jesus actually is treated with reverence in his brief appearances on screen. Hypocrisy, not theology, is the real target. Life of Brian isn't as flat-out silly as Monty Python and the Holy Grail or as unsavory as portions of The Meaning of Life, and that disappointed some fans. But that sense of balance also makes this the group's best cinematic work by far. Grade: A
