Return to Montauk

Wolff cuts a fascinating if frustrating figure, and you wish the film would spend a bit more time teasing out who she is, how she lives, and what she sees in a bore like Max.

[An] emotionally inert drama about an author trying to reanimate the past.

"Return to Montauk" is Volker Schlöndorff's tasteful, high-minded Euro-literate version of a Lifetime Movie - and I mean that (mostly) as a compliment.

It's main story-line is a mess, too intellectual to tug at the heart strings and too wordy to accurately capture emotion.

Sadly this Colm Tóibín-assisted effort has none of the warmth of his best work.

... Return to Montauk is utterly absorbing.

Volker Schlöndorff becomes romantic in a small, but sincere film. [Full review in Spanish]

Brought to life in the furrowed brows and yearning gazes of the movie's soulful lead performances.

There is also little palpable chemistry between Skarsgard and either of his love interests - making it a challenge to invest in either storyline - which is completely the opposite to Brooklyn, where we couldn't decide which we wanted more.

Nothing really rings true in Return to Montauk until the pain breaks through and the tears start to flow. Perhaps that's the point.

What energy the picture had in New York's literary world dissipates as the film turns into the kind of conversation which is only really interesting for the two people it concerns.