Return to Sender (I) (2015) User Reviews

A slow burner that never ignites.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 14 October 2015]

Miranda Wells, a beautiful young Nurse from a small town is invited on a blind date with a tall, dark and handsome chap 'Kevin.' Miranda has definite issues with pens and a few other quirks. When a guy turns up to meet her, she assumes he's Kevin, but events go tragically wrong, later the real Kevin turns up.

There are some definite pacing issues, it is so slow in parts, dare I say it becomes a little boring. Some scenes are so slow and overdone this movie could be edited and shown in less then an hour. The movie itself is quite hard to follow, there are times when I didn't know what was going on. It's a little telegraphed at times, you kinda know what she's all about.

Definitely issues with her dad's dog, but why did she do what she did, I appreciate it was a pretty dress, she never forgave it for that. I think that showed us her capacity for slow and definite revenge.

I love Rosamund Pike, she showed in Gone Girl just how good she is, but here she's just a bit flat and makes Miranda uninteresting, thank goodness for Nick Nolte, he added a bit of spirit and warmth to the film that was otherwise lacking.

When she performs a tracheotomy in the restaurant she got a round of applause? Would that truly happen?

I can't make out if I thought the ending was good or terrible, it was certainly a switch in tempo.

How many hairstyles did she have in this film? Every scene she looked like she'd been re-styled.

Considering the matter this film deals with I would have thought it would have left me sad or angry, but it left me a bit cold.

Some good elements, just a bit of a let down. 5/10

Disappointing.

[betaworld2046 · 4/10 · 5 November 2015]

At the beginning of the movie, I was struggling to recall where I have seen this pretty face before. It wasn't until a third had passed, I finally got it. Gone girl. So I figured that was where the sinister feeling came from. But I didn't expect the twist was going to emerge so early.

Was Maranda sending letters to him in prison??? Dubious behavior. "You win" was written on the back of the envelope. William, are you getting your hope up again soon after you raped her? OMG, she came to visit in an open back dress. A wicked trap, no doubt about that.

Was that about 50mins into the movie? For the rest of the time, I was just counting minutes and yawning. I repeated "kill him, kill him, just do it..." for a thousand times silently. There was nothing surprising when he was drugged just like the pitiful dog. Of course, she wanted to revenge. Of course, he being a minor scumbag had no chance to escape her deadly and jerking claws. But, kill someone released on parole just like that? Wasn't he supposed to send weekly reports to authorities? Hadn't anyone seen him working on her porch? Her dad surely did. OK, a father wouldn't rat out his little girl. But didn't she know that William went to the local store for paints? When her dad was venting at her , he was waving the piece of shade guide. There was no way she would miss that. Nevertheless, the fire of revenge was scorching and she was the ultimate predator. If no one else cared about the plot holes, why should she do?

The performance was OK. I think the biggest disappointment was that the twist was exposed too early–like I said above. Before anything else, the character of Maranda was too similar to the one in Gone girl. This overlap alone could give away the biggest twist of the movie easily to anyone who recognized her and had some imagination. The ending was also not thought through. She was basically asking for trouble by killing William like that. But, well, that is just typical for these kind of movies. Once the twist is revealed, the class will be over. But Gone girl at least combined a variety of elements to keep audience excited. The plot of this movie, on the other hand, was just very linear.

A huge disappointment

[songbirdmc · 5/10 · 10 April 2019]

No spoilers:

I am going to keep this brief because truthfully there isn't much to say. I decided to watch this film because after having never known of Rosamund Pike before I quickly fell in love with her and her acting after having seen the amazing film Gone Girl. I didn't go into this film thinking it would be like Gone Girl despite still having a desire for more of that type of film. I just wanted to see more of Rosamund and her acting and what other types of films she has been in. It starts off really promising, but rather quickly takes a nose dive. There was a surprise or two and it actually had great potential, but it was wasted potential. The acting is good, the cinematography is good, but the story left a lot to be desired. That's all I can say to avoid spoilers. Despite my feelings I never tell people not to watch a film because what I don't like someone else might really enjoy and vice versa. If you are a Rosamund fan or just curious about this film then give it a look.

What the Sam Hill!

[changeisloud · 4/10 · 17 June 2015]

While this movie had a huge amount of potential it ended up being a "WTH" kinda' watch. The movie starts off and for a second I forgot the movie was a thriller since it had a bit of a comedic start. It's slow and then I think I missed something, and then the climax happened. I was re- intrigued!! But touch me in the morning and walk away but I must have missed something......again. I'm a committer so I couldn't bring myself to turn it off for hopes it would re-intrigue me and what do you know it did. But touch me twice and walk away twice..........the ending SUCKS a big-timer! I implore you to join my misery and watch the movie anyway. Feel my pain and understand my dis-in-trigue!!

Puzzling "Therapy" for Rape Victims

[3xHCCH · 4/10 · 19 June 2015]

Miranda (Rosamund Pike) is a nurse who's got it all it seems -- her own nice house, a loving supportive Dad (Nick Nolte), a stable career about to go the next level. One day, a lecherous stranger William (Shiloh Fernandez) gains access into her house and rapes her. As her neat little world comes crumbling down around her, Miranda embarks on a novel form of "therapy", in the hope of recovering from the brutal trauma she suffered.

A rapist is not only a sexual assaulter, but also the ultimate bully and power-tripper. A rape victim is violated not only sexually and physically, but also psychologically, mentally and even spiritually. What may be a few minutes of torture will haunt a victim for a lifetime.

Powerfully rich in dramatic pain and torment, rape and its aftermath had been the topic of thousands of films and TV shows. Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950) and Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring" (1960) are both Oscar-winning classics of World Cinema. "Johnny Belinda" (1948) and"The Accused" (1988) have won Best Actress Oscars for Jane Wyman and Jodie Foster respectively. But no, before you expect too much, this film definitely does not have Oscars in its future.

Lead star Rosamund Pike shot "Return to Sender" BEFORE her Oscar- nominated turn in "Gone Girl". There is a lot of her "Gone Girl" performance here as well -- the subtle mysterious boiling under her cool-as-ice exterior. The strange script makes her do a lot of illogically unexpected, supposedly therapeutic activities, and Pike does them with her game face straight on. Seeing her make these puzzling decisions, we are as frustrated as her father Mitchell was in the film.

Shiloh Fernandez was clearly up to no good the moment we see him on screen. He has got a raw roguish look about him that makes him work as this vile character. Nick Nolte is now all grandfatherly and Santa Claus-like with his white beard and body heft, playing MIranda's father Mitchell. This is so unlike how I last remember him during his prime in the 1990s in film like "Cape Fear" or "The Prince of Tides."

Watching "Return to Sender" felt like watching three different short films which were just tenuously connected to each other. The final act was so predictable yet still so maddening because it never really showed us clearly what happened. We will be expected to interpret the scene in our own way. I am sure those who have invested time to follow the movie to this point may not exactly relish this disappointing ending. 4/10.

Messy and a missed opportunity, with a few good points

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 4 July 2015]

Return to Sender did have some potential, a subject that is hard-hitting and easy to relate to and Rosamund Pike and Nick Nolte are watchable in a lot of their work. Return to Sender has some decent assets, but overall is pretty messy and like a missed opportunity.

Pike is nowhere near as good as her deservedly Oscar-nominated performance in Gone Girl (a far superior film, no matter how polarising it is, and Amy is much more interestingly written than Miranda), but she still plays the role with charisma and an appropriate iciness. Shiloh Fernandez has his unsure moments but mostly suitably sleazy, but the film's best performance comes from Nick Nolte, whose sympathetic performance gives a glimmer of emotional backbone and his character is the one character and asset that is halfway credible. Return to Sender is reasonably well-filmed too and fits the atmosphere well with some nice shots.

The rest of the cast reads of acting like wooden marionettes, and none of the characters are fleshed out are often underwritten. Apart from some of the camera work, the production values are generally too TV-film quality and the direction is lazy and confused, showing a lot of inexperience in the genre, a lack of suspense and a lack of ability to make the narrative cohesive. The script is illogical, predictable and completely lacking in realism, the way it flows and is delivered also never feels natural. The story is all over the place and doesn't know what it wants to be, it does agreed feel like three different films and it does little with the second and third acts, the first act actually does have a little tension and some genuine sympathy for Miranda.

However, the character study second act has some far too pedestrian and lazy pacing, far too wooden and underdeveloped characterisation (with the exception of Nolte) and emotional impact is minimal (only provided by Nolte). And the third revenge act is sorely devoid of tension or suspense, increasing predictability to the extent that you're exclaiming 'we knew it!' and suffers from Miranda's actions not being believable for a second. The ending is very rushed and even the open feel felt abrupt and under-explained, it is also rather brutal and any sympathy felt for Miranda in the first act is completely diminished here.

Overall, messy (with the biggest offender being the story) and a missed opportunity, with its moments (the performances of Pike, Nolte and Fernandez, some nice shots and a decent first act). 4/10 Bethany Cox

A strange experience

[jtindahouse · 7/10 · 10 August 2016]

I'm sitting here having watched 'Return to Sender' and I genuinely don't know what to think. I'm not even sure whether I enjoyed it or not. I could justify giving it a '3' and I could equally justify giving it a '9'. It's my kind of movie first of all. I love the 'revenge' genre. This is an odd case of that genre though. In fact I wasn't even sure it was that type of movie until 4/5 of the way through, despite the movie poster heavily implying it.

It's not a particularly well made movie, at least technically. The sound engineering is poorly done in certain scenes. Every scene involving the prison phones is incredibly hard to hear the dialogue in. It chops in and out and is often inaudible. The story is choppy and alienates the audience at times by leaving them clueless as to what the point of this all is. And yet through all this, I was having a pretty good time watching it (I think).

Rosamund Pike is a very fine actress and has the chops to carry a movie (as she proved in 'Gone Girl'). She's again pretty good here, and with a stronger script could have accomplished a performance on par with her one in 'Gone Girl' (the two roles are actually strikingly similar). It's hard to explain exactly what an odd experience 'Return to Sender' is to someone who hasn't seen it. Would I recommend this film for someone to watch? I'm still not entirely sure. The only thing I can say is watch it to see what I mean.

Just a messy bore-fest, with Rosamund Pike

[stephendaxter · 4/10 · 28 May 2015]

Return to Sender is a thriller starring Rosamund Pike fresh off her role in Gone Girl which earned her an Oscar nomination. Now although she didn't put in a bad performance in this film, she wont be getting any nominations for this. The plot of this movie was just a complete mess, it kind of had a purpose for the first 15 minutes and looked like it could be a promising film but for the entire rest of the film i had no idea what was happening or why it was happening. Everything about the film just felt very weird and you couldn't like Rosamund Pike's character because of the ridiculously dumb decisions she makes for reasons that you don't understand. Just thinking back on the film there was zero character development for anyone at all for the majority of the film, it is just a series of events that seem to happen then the film moves on to another irrelevant scene and it keeps on doing this until you are bored out of your mind.

The film also decides to take a very odd turn in the last act just out of nowhere. All of a sudden the film decides to throw a curveball with absolutely no setup and no foreshadowing that it just seems very out of character. The terrible writing of the plot and characters really let the film down, you cannot get behind any of the characters and everything just seems ridiculous. In the end The directing wasn't bad and was shot pretty well and Rosamund Pike did her best to use her acting talents to try and save the film but it just wasn't enough to save this messy bore-fest. - 3.9

Underrated

[Solmack · 7/10 · 11 May 2016]

****************Spoiler Alert****************

It's not as bad as most reviews that I read claim it to be.

Rosamund Pike delivers an excellent misleading performance. The movie is not about revenge like many people seem to believe. It's more complex than that. The guy was a rapist, but she has always been a psychopath - there are hints scattered all over the movie, including the death of her first patient. - In his "misfortune" he picked the wrong victim, and she found in him the perfect lab mouse to practice with.

The plot twist was not a last minute thing. It was hinted all over the movie. Rosamund's poker face performance distracts you from the obvious goal. Like a true psychopath.

Return to Writer and Director

[MilkWithHoney · 2/10 · 9 November 2015]

How they managed to get well known actors in this ill-fated plot of a movie is beyond me. Maybe they pulled a classic bait and switch and presented one script to get people on board and then filmed an alternate script during production, either way this is what you would call a disappointment to be polite.

Now let's start with the PLOT, the whole premise for the movie was a great idea, loved it from the synopsis, the execution of the plot was discerning. After the inciting incident the whole plot takes a disastrous tumble. You will fail to realize the objective of the film by the end. Not only that the credits couldn't roll fast enough for me and I was so happy that I didn't pay $14 to see this in the cinema.

CHARACTERS: Funny enough, you may just end up rooting for the villain, that's how recklessly this film's plot us put together. I found myself with no compassion for our main character. I did however, feel bad for Nick Nolte, because I couldn't for the life of me figure out how his agent tricked him into this.

I gave this two stars. One for putting a budget together to get the film done and the other for getting decent stars to somehow film this.

(Major spoiler warning!) Probably the best depiction of a sociopath ever created on film.

[salviolog · 10/10 · 29 February 2016]

This movie is probably the most accurate depiction of a sociopath ever created on the big screen.

Miranda Wells, ingeniously depicted by the famous "Gone Girl" star Rosamund Pike, a nurse in a local hospital, who is a bit odd, but an all around nice person, gets horribly raped by a no good small time criminal William Finn. But, surprisingly enough, instead of hating on Finn, Miranda visits him in prison, and even hires him to fix her porch... then she drugs him, locks him in her basement, tortures him and probably kills him, revealing previously to that that she have let her mother die, and that she enjoys hospital work because it allows her to inflict pain on patients while treating them (much in a fashion of a dentist in "The Little Shop of Horrors" musical).

Miranda Wells is probably the most accurate depiction of a sociopath ever created on film. Her Oscar-worthy acting in Return to Sender very well answers the question of why people almost never suspect a sociopath serial killer until the body count goes up way too high. With no offense to Anthony Hopkins performance in the series about the psychologist gone murderer, real psychopathic serial killers rarely act like Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs in real life - they are much more likely to look like Miranda: likable, charming, a bit odd, but nothing more.

The movie portrays all these qualities in a very subtle, very cinematic fashion, which works very well: it allows the viewer to profile Miranda, like a detective, which makes "Return to Sender" that much more great of a thriller. We know something is coming, but we would never see it. This is why sociopaths are so dangerous, and "Return to Sender" does a grade A job at explaining it.

why did she kill her dads dog?

[stevedonovan-35045 · 6/10 · 26 May 2015]

This movie could have been so good but it got lazy halfway through.It started out at a good pace;interesting,good acting,liked the characters,it seemed to be going good.Then she gets raped.Then there's the whole slow,depressed,stay in the house, everyone try to cheer her up part.Then she gets herself together and you think,OK,here we go,this is gonna get good.NO!!She visits him a million times till he gets out,then lets him work on her house for about a month i think.Then feeds him anti freeze in lemonade to make him pass out and cuts off his dong.I admit thats pretty cool but the torture/revenge part of the movie was literally about six minutes tops.they don't even show it.You just have to assume.Then she goes to her dads and says"he wont be coming around anymore",I don't know if she killed him,and if she did;HOW? But my main problem with this movie is that she told her rapist,during the two minute torture, that the anti freeze killed her dads dog".That one line,out of the whole movie,bothered the hell out of me because they never implied that she was going crazy or was some kind of sadistic psycho.She had a good relationship with her dad and we were led to believe that she was taking care of the dog when he got sick.Honestly,after she said that,i wished her rapist broke free and killed her.so anyway,5 and a half really but i gave it 6 cause i like Nick Nolte.

Disconnected

[neil-progroupafrica · 4/10 · 19 March 2018]

Slow paced and disconnected in parts. Poor sound on prison scenes was quite annoying.

A movie to flush down the toilet

[jotterandvalentin · 3/10 · 3 November 2015]

This is not a good script. The story is good for 15 minutes and then after the first event, it begins to be boring. The all movie, I was waiting for something to happen and it never happened. Like i said, the first 15 minutes of the movie are good, because it is intriguing and there is character development, then the all movie is boring, there is no character development, apart from the father and at the end there is an event that make no sens. As a viewer, I felt a little like the father, when he screams to her daughter that she is crazy. but his role just does not impact the movie. Actors are not bad, there are some good scenes,but this does not make it a good movie since the story does not make sens. There is no intrigue, and you fell like the character played by Rosamund Pike is just stupid, until the end where you find out she is crazy for doing all this. And her role was sometimes badly played, especially for scenes with her father. You don't attach yourself to any character and you don't care if they live or die. Similar movies like this already exist and are just better. There is no point in watching this movie.

When your sympathy ends up with the rapist, NOT his victim, there's a BIG problem!

[dandxchen · 3/10 · 17 April 2016]

Am so unimpressed with this movie that I intend to keep this short and spend my time trying to work out how I've been left feeling sorry for the antagonist sex offender and NOT his victim.

As much as it clearly wasn't deemed pertinent that Miranda was actually a person the audience ought to like for this plot to work, it is, I feel, the MAIN reason why it just didn't deliver.

Of course, her aggressor was someone we all despise in real life, but the entire tone and script of this movie forces you to actually sympathise with the textbook villain; Miranda's manipulative, controlling, clinical perspective of life and those in it allowed her to hoodwink William (the guy who raped her)into thinking she had forgiven him and............get this, invites him round to "fix things" with a couple of freshly-made lemonades thrown in!!!!!

Guess the moral of this movie is don't speak to people you have seriously wronged or accept drinks from them. They may not truly have accepted you're apologies but will definitely make YOU sorry!

3 films for the price of one!

[Ladym265 · 3/10 · 31 May 2015]

Unfortunately, all three of them are bad.

This film is a mess. It starts out with a woman being raped, then turns into an attempt at a character study, then ends up a cheesy revenge flick. It's all over the place and never segues any of the different threads in a way that make it watchable.

It's a shame to see Pike and Nolte in this, they're way above it. To be fair to them, they both do as well as they can with the material, but it would have been better suited as a movie of the week.

Don't waste your time with this one. It sounds interesting, and you think maybe the synopsis is short in case it gives too much away. It's not. It's short because it's that or an essay explaining that this film isn't about anything because it has no idea what its doing.

Return to Sender - An Appropriate Title

[arthur_tafero · 4 April 2019]

I like Rosamund Pike. She is intelligent, good-looking and sexy, and an excellent actress. The problem is, however, we are always aware that she is acting and she never gets into character. All her film personas have zero character development. Meryl Streep, on the other hand, submerges herself completely into the character she is playing, and you have no sense at all that she is acting; she IS the character. Rosamund cannot do that; for all her talent, she seems to refuse to surrender herself to any character of any film. She is always Rosamund Pike. She is a lot like John Wayne in that regard. It really didn't matter what role John Wayne was playing; he was always John Wayne. Rosamund Pike is the female version of John Wayne. This film was trite and a waste of time, but I really do hope to see her capture a character some day; like Charlize Theron in Monster or Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth.

One time watchable

[m-ramanan · 7/10 · 6 November 2021]

RATED 7/10 Language: English Source: Amazon Prime

Good psychological thriller... it was nicely paced and cast is too good. It is nor perfect but it holds the audience good enough. One time watchable.

Nothing more than a made for TV revenge movie

[spotlightne · 3/10 · 26 June 2015]

Rosamund Pike is often hailed as a great actress but I find her smug in every movie she's in.

From the first few scenes, to the last scene, she's smug.

Basically this movie is about a rape, and how the character Pike aims to put her life back together again.

The dialogue is slow. The acting slow. And the revenge 'meh'. I Spit On Your Grave, this is not.

Nick Nolte co-stars but is wasted in the role of Pike's father.

All in all, this movie is nothing more than a TV movie, the sort of thing you'd tuned into around 3pm in the afternoon.

I could have been better but it lacks punch.

Could have been much better but still it's not bad

[deloudelouvain · 7/10 · 16 October 2015]

I am just going to rate this movie with a seven because the actors were good. The story itself was not bad and even pleasant to follow. The only thing that I was sad about is that the things that happened in the end should have happened much earlier in the movie to make it more entertaining. You just got to wait too long for those things to happen and I could see it coming from miles away. Nevertheless Rosamund Pike and Shiloh Fernandez gave us good performances, and even the old Nick Nolte was believable in his role. But like I said, it's a pity that the story did not peak in the middle instead of the end. I am sure Return To Sender would have done better with the ratings then. But still it's an okay movie to watch once.

A mess of a movie

[shelleyhackstar · 2/10 · 19 October 2020]

Reading the blurb I thought I was in for a revenge, or overcoming a trauma kind of movie. Nope! This is an utter mess of a film. Couldn't get my head round the behaviour. And what a waste of Camryn Manheim. Avoid. Not one redeeming feature.

Second Guesses

[kkthedj · 8/10 · 6 March 2021]

It's obvious from reading most of the reviews, even by the supposed professional critics, that they didn't understand exactly what was going on. There are several scenes where you should be asking who is plotting against whom. The tricky part is people aren't understanding that the length of the movie and storyline often confuse the actual timeline. It actually spans several years, not just a few Months that people seem to think. Overall if you open your mind and pay attention, it's actually a fairly decent movie.

It's an OK film as long as you have low expectations

[tr91 · 6/10 · 27 May 2015]

*****This review contains spoilers***** If you don't expect Gone Girl then the film is quite good. Nothing special but definitely watchable.

The film follows Miranda (Rosamund Pike, pretty much the reason I wanted to watch this film) who lives in a small town. We only see her with her work colleagues and also her father (Nick Nolte). We see her having troubles around town and she is also dating. One day one of her dates, William (Shiloh Fernandez), arrives early and causes her a lot of harm, going to prison in this process.

I'm sure if you have read anything about this film you will know the subject matter. This particular scene is very brutal and quite a lengthy scene. It made me feel sick.

The film from this point goes a few different directions and had me questioning some of the actions of the characters. We see Pike and Fernandez's characters agreeing to meet in the prison. They believe that they can erase the horrible memory by getting to know each other and putting things right. Some of these scenes are hard to watch and at times a little cringe worthy.

When William is released from prison, the film becomes even more strange as we see him go to Miranda's house (something which she agrees to) to help fix the house up. She is trying to sell the house but nobody will buy. William goes to the house for a few days helping her out and it is just strange, it is one of the weirdest on screen relationships I have ever seen. I didn't know if this was it or whether there would be one last twist.

It was very much a slow burning process appearing to go nowhere until that classic scene happens, yes you guessed it, William's drink is spiked by Miranda...how predictable. She then takes him hostage in her basement and becomes to torture him in a style similar to Ellen Page in Hard Candy (2005).

After finally getting to this stage of the film I felt the ending was rushed. Everything is left open to the imagination of the viewer as nothing is really shown but I'm pretty sure there was only one outcome.

Overall it was an OK psychological thriller with a good performance from Rosamund Pike. At times the film felt a bit unnecessarily slow and cringe worthy but it is a decent film to watch once if there is nothing else on.

6/10.

Wth is this

[LincolnSixEko · 3/10 · 14 May 2022]

Starts out good, then gets weird and silly, but then it gets better. But the ending is a total cop out. And after thinking about the movie altogether if felt like a TV movie.

Flawed Thriller

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 25 January 2016]

The single nurse Miranda Wells (Rosamund Pike) is preparing to become surgical nurse and is buying the house of her dreams. Miranda is very close to her father Mitchell Wells (Nick Nolte) that is helping her to fix her house to sell it to raise the necessary money to buy the other house. One day, a colleague schedules a blind date with a sweet man called Kelvin. Miranda is still getting dressed when she sees a man on the porch. She assumes that the man is Kevin and invites him in, but he is actually a rapist that rapes her. When the real Kevin arrives, he finds Miranda in the kitchen and calls the police. Miranda identifies the rapist William Finn (Shiloh Fernandez) that is immediately arrested. When she recovers, her life turns upside down since nobody wants to buy her house and she can not be a surgical nurse since her right hand has tremors after the rape. Out of the blue, she writes a letter to William but the letter returns to her. She insists on sending it and when she receives a reply, she goes to the prison to visit William. When Williams is released, he is welcomed by Miranda in her house. What is happening to Miranda?

"Return to Sender" is a flawed thriller about a woman that sees her life partially destroyed after a rape. The Brazilian title is a spoiler since discloses that it is a story of revenge. However the plot is flawed since there are many evidences that Miranda had visited William in the prison and might have witnesses seeing the man working at her house. Therefore, in case of any investigation of his disappearance, Miranda could be a suspect since she has the motive. There are more smart means of revenging. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Sede de Vingança" ("Thirsty of Revenge")