Return to Sender
Director: Fouad Mikati
Starring: Rosamund Pike, Shiloh Fernandez, Nick Nolte
95 mins; Class 15;
KRS Releasing Ltd

Return to Sender falls squarely into the category of the rape-revenge movie, a sub-genre of the vigilante films so popular in the 1970s and 1980s.

Extremities, released in 1986 and starring Farrah Fawcett and James Russo, was a case in point; like many of its ilk treading the very fine line between exploitation and female empowerment.

This return to the genre is so poor both in plot and characterisation, that it is neither exploitative nor empowering.

For one thing, it strictly follows the rules of the genre – starting off with the rape of the film’s protagonist Miranda (Rosamund Pike); segueing into her rehabilitation, which includes corresponding with and ultimately befriending her assailant Finn (Shiloh Fernandez), before building up to its unsurprising conclusion.

Furthermore, its characters are so poorly drawn it is impossible to either empathise with the victim or feel totally appalled by her attacker.

Granted, the audience is drawn in during the swift and brutal attack scene. But that is because it is rather violently executed and, well, we have a pulse. But, as the story unfolds, we grow to care little for either of them or their fate.

Pike’s character in Return to Sender shares many similar glacial characteristics to her role in Gone Girl.

In fact, the actress filmed this before her Oscar-nominated role in the latter, and it feels like a bad dress rehearsal. For, despite her efforts to inject some authenticity into the character, she displays neither the depth nor the ambiguity she would go on to portray in Girl.

Miranda is distant and aloof with all those around her and even her friends; aloofness that often comes across as unpleasantness and it is really hard to empathise with her and her plight.

It doesn’t help that the script itself, byJoe Gossett and Patricia Beauchamp, can’t seem to figure who exactly she is. And so, what is supposed to be a morally-complex character is rather anodyne.

Little in the way of thrills

Her attempts to ‘own’ the incident and not be a victim are merely glossed over and, while it is clear that she suffers from OCD, her erratic behaviour at times hints at something more sinister and deadly, which manifests itself in the clumsy finale.

Fernandez is also lumped with dud characterisation, with his shifty eyes, shuffling demeanour and mumbled dialogue.

It is difficult to determine whether he is genuinely remorseful for his actions and truly feels something for Miranda or whether he plans more nefarious things.

This is more a result of his one-note performance than the script trying to be ambiguous – if only.

It’s the gravelly-voiced Nick Nolte, as Miranda’s concerned father, who provides the only solid characterisation. His is the voice of wisdom as his daughter embarks on this ill-advised friendship.

When films about rape were produced 30 and 40 years ago, the subject was still rather taboo and these films were labelled ‘controversial’.

Now that the subject – regrettably still all-too-common – is openly debated and often, for better or worse, depicted in movies, I’d have expected a retread of the rape-revenge trope to be more substantial.

Yet, its approach to the sensitive subject is very tentative, resulting in a so-called psychological thriller that displays very shallow psychology and little in the way of thrills.