The Return of the Soldier

An exquisite screen version of Rebecca West's 1918 novel.

"Chris" (Alan Bates) has returned from the Great War with no idea who his wife "Kitty" (Julie Christie) is. This rather upsets her. Initially, not so much because he doesn't remember her, but because it has disrupted her upper-middle class lifestyle and because he also appears to have regressed back to "Margaret" (Glenda Jackson) - a woman with whom he was in love many years earlier and who has now married "William" (Frank Finlay). Determined to regain his affections, "Kitty" employs psychiatrist "Dr. Anderson" (Ian Holm) to try and see if her husband can be "cured" but as time goes on and with the affectionate but ultimately quite confusing attentions of cousin "Jenny" (Ann-Margret) clouding the issue as well as an increasingly hands-off approach taken by this physician, it looks like "Chris" is going to have to start from scratch - and who knows what path he may take. Though it might appear a familiar formula, this is about as far from being a "love triangle" as you're ever likely to get and the efforts from all concerned - especially, I felt, the underused Finlay, really do work here in crafting an environment where Bates is really left to wander in what we Scots call a dwam. It's as if his brain has gone back in time for reasons of safety and comfort as much as love, yet it's clear that he must have loved "Kitty" too - and there is certainly a little ambiguity about the fee…

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