Hub - Issue 12 by Jeff Crook / Paul Kane / Scott Harrison / Alasdair Stuart

Author:Jeff Crook / Paul Kane / Scott Harrison / Alasdair Stuart
Format: epub

The Return

Directed by Asif Kapadia

Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter O’Brien, Sam Shephard

Joanna Mills ( Gellar) is a travelling saleswoman for a trucking firm with a dark past tied to her childhood in Texas. Repeated visions of a man in overalls, the memory of a childhood car crash and a propensity for self harm have caused her to shut herself off, buried in the simple repetition of making sales and moving on. Until, she finally decides to return to Texas, face her past and discover the truth.Gellar has been roundly criticised and in some cases justifiably for being a one note actress but here she genuinely connects with the material for the first time since, arguably, Cruel Intentions. Joanna is a woman completely alone and completely mistrusting of everything and everyone and a remarkably difficult role to play as a result. However, Gellar nails it, bringing exactly the right combination of caution and determination to the role to make her sympathetic and interesting. It’s a remarkably somber performance but the role demands it and the end result is that Gellar becomes the glue that holds the movie together.Her search for meaning, and gradual acceptance of the increasingly bizarre events Texas throws at her is slow paced but has a genuine air of mystery that few films of this type achieve. The first time we see Joanna slip back into the past is a perfect example of this as as she walks into the toilet at a night club and out across the car park of a bar that cannot possibly be there. Joanna’s world is malleable, mercurial and increasingly dangerous. This sense of menace is only increased by the other cast members with J.C. Mckenzie as Griff, a local mechanic and Peter O’Brien as Terry Stahl, a man Joanna knows but has never met being the stand outs. The moment where we find out her exact connection to Terry is particularly good as countless little details from earlier in the film suddenly take on a whole new meaning. Equally good is Sam Sherpard as Joanna’s father Ed, a genuinely loving, caring parent whose inability to deal with Joanna’s impossible problems stems not from neglect but from simply not understanding them. Shepard is an effortless actor and although he has precious little screen time here does a typically excellent job. Adam Scott also manages to register in his brief appearance as Kurt, Joanna’s abusive ex-boyfriend and rival at work, creating a character that’s plausible, seemingly normal and intensely sinister.What really makes the film sing however, is the cinematography. The flat, blank expanses of Texas that Joanna’s work takes her to are a landscape too large for any one person to cope with and only serve to emphasise how small and fragile she is. The film’s colour palette only helps this, with every scene shot through with wintery greys and blues to create an atmosphere of loss and distance. Director Asiff Kapadia made his name on the stunning The Warrior and along with

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