The Homecoming (1973)

An Englishman (Michael Jayston) returns from America where he has lived the last six years with his wife (Vivien Merchant) to his home to introduce her to his father (Paul Rogers), two brothers (Ian Holm, Terence Rigby) and Uncle (Cyril Cusack). Harold Pinter adapts his 1965 play for the screen which is directed by Peter Hall. Pinter's enigmatic play is greatly admired (it won the 1967 Tony award for best play) but it doesn't work as cinema, if you can even call it a movie. I suspect it works best on stage because on film, it feels forced and dare I say it, grotesque. I'd be tempted to call Pinter's play misogynistic except that it's misanthropic which would include misogyny. The play's theatrical conceit doesn't work on celluloid and all the close ups just render the actors' performances misproportioned. Jayston's passivity and acceptance regarding his wife's sudden promiscuity doesn't seem logical. However, perhaps I took it too seriously when I shouldn't have taken it as a stylized black comedy of the absurd.