Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 12 Critics What's this?

  • Summary: When Kelli returns home from war, she expected to slowly but surely settle back into her life with her husband and kids in the small town she grew up in. But she gradually realizes that the life she left behind is no longer there waiting for her. (Focus Features)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 12
  2. Negative: 1 out of 12
  1. Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    Feb 8, 2012
    83
    Return is unusually attuned to its protagonist's alienation, which is especially painful because its source isn't some horrendous event she witnessed, but the hundreds of annoying aspects of everyday life.
  2. Reviewed by: James Mottram
    Mar 26, 2012
    60
    Reversing his "Take Shelter" role, Michael Shannon convinces as her grounded husband and "Mad Men's" John Slattery offers good support as a fellow vet. But this is Cardellini's film, and she dominates with a terrific, tough-minded turn.
  3. Reviewed by: Rex Reed
    Feb 8, 2012
    25
    Ms. Cardellini plays it like a zombie, and she isn't helped by all the loitering camera angles and repetitive close-ups of her head framed against car windows. It's a worthy subject, ploddingly explored in a film that is too modest for its own good.

See all 12 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of

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