Return To Sender Wasn't That Great

I watched Return To Sender yesterday, and for anyone who has not seen this movie, it was released in 2015. The film is starred by Rosamund Pike, Nick Nolte, and Shiloh Fernandez. Pike plays a nurse who has a bit of a control issue which is evident throughout the movie. It's not evident whether she has an issue with germs or has OCD, however, outside of that little quirk, she seems to be a relatively normal person leading a relatively normal life. 

She has good relationship with her father, played by Nolte, and she has a good relationship with her co-workers one of whom is worried about Pike's character's love life, so she sets her up on a blind date with a man named Kevin. Not much detail is given about Kevin save for the fact that the friend has been trying to set them up for a while now. 

The movie carries on a bit to display Pike's character's life as normal and routine until we arrive at date night. The Pike is on the couch painting her toe nails and notices there's someone outside. She goes to the door and tells "Kevin" that he's early and she mentioned that it was strange that he didn't knock. He smooth talks his way out it and Pike excuses herself to go finished getting dressed. 

When she returns things get a little awkward and eventually she asks him to leave. "Kevin" starts to walk toward the door and when he gets there, he locks it. He then proceeded to brutally rape Pike, after which, he fled on foot from her house. 

Later, the real Kevin shows up to the scene to discover Pike badly beaten in her kitchen. He calls the cops and from then on, Kevin takes his leave from the movie. While in the hospital, Pike remembers who the guy is and where she knows him from; turns out the man's name was William and he was the bus boy at the restaurant she and her father would frequent. 

William is arrested and thrown in jail, however, as we see Pike recover from her injuries, we notice that she develops a tremor in her right hand. Over time the movie shows the depths of her PTSD. In one scene she was unnecessarily rude to a store clerk calling her fat and in another scene she is trying to play the game Surgery. Out of frustration she destroys the game and after hours of lying on the floor, she comes up with an idea and this is where the movie started to lose me. 

She gets up and starts writing a letter to someone and at first, the movie doesn't tell the audience who it is, but once the letter starts to come back marked "Return to Sender" we quickly figure out that she's writing to William. This was very cringeworthy to me and I'm not sure why anyone went along with it, but it was only a movie and I wanted to see how it ended. 

Finally after months of writing to him he finally agrees to let her come see him. The scene is a little awkward and tense, but then it gets weird again when she asks him, "How's the food in here?" and it was almost like she was flirting with him a little bit. After that she keeps going to see him and they start to build this really creepy and weird relationship. Eventually he gets paroled for good behavior. 

After he's released, he starts visiting Pike's house, but she doesn't let him inside. The deal was that he comes by to help her try to fix things because one of the outcomes of her rape was not being able to sell her house and so her goal was to fix it up and make it like new; he was supposed to help. One day while he is picking up some paint, Pike's father notices that the paint looks like that paint at his daughter's house and as it would turn out, he was the one who put the hole in the ceiling William was fixing. 

Father dearest rushes over to his daughter's house to find out what's going on and confronts her about. She confesses that he has been coming by, but that they haven't been just sitting around sipping tea; he's been helping her fix things because he can't undo what he's done and she needed a way to move on. He stormed off saying that he didn't know her anymore. 

William over hears the conversation and decides to not show up that day, instead, he calls Pike and talks to her. During the conversation she tells him he's afraid of a 70 year old man, basically goading him to come over. The next day he comes over the scene picks up with them working on the porch. He finishes up with door and asks her if he can help. 

She agrees and things get weirdly sensual almost suggesting that they might finally take the leap into the romantic end of the pool; super cringey stuff. Just as things seem like they're about to hit some climax, William says he doesn't feel well and eventually asks if he can lie down in the house. Almost as if she was hesitant, she agrees and takes him inside. The scene fades away and we hear a thud. 

I'm going to stop there. If you're intrigued by the movie then you should go watch it and if you just want to know how it turns out, well then you can Google it. Either way, my opinion on the movie won't change. 

It wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but definitely wasn't a good one. I was on board with the premise of the movie until she starts up that weird relationship with him. I can't speak about any woman's experience about being sexually assaulted, however, I can't imagine their are any who would want to keep in contact with their rapist, but that's just me personally, so I didn't really like that aspect. 

Another aspect I didn't like was that they framed her as a person who has to have control over things and is very detail oriented and yet she invites a blind date over to her house? She won't touch a community pen, but a stranger she's never seen is more than welcome to have her address? Didn't make much sense to me. 

Then there was the relationship with her mother that was mentioned and apparently a big part of her life, but I don't recall them discussing anything in detail save for the fact that she died when Pike's character was young, so it was weird to me that her mother's death somehow shaped her life, but it was never discussed on exactly how or what happened. All we found out by the end of the movie was the cause of death. 

Overall, it was a cringey movie that was hard to watch in some parts. The acting wasn't terrible, however, the writing and direction left a lot to be desired. There were a lot of things that I left out because if you watch the movie there should be at least a few surprises, and if you don't you can Google the movie and find what I left out. 

At the very least, it's worth one watch and that's about it. I wouldn't go bragging about it anyone, but if someone were to ask, it'll kill the time if you like Rosamund Pike. 

Where to watch:

TubiTv (click here to watch) Free

The Roku Channel (click here to watch) Free

PLEX (click here to watch) Free

Official Trailer