Period dramas are not usually my thing to be perfectly honest and when I read that this movie may in fact be 'swashbuckling' I began to get very worried and hitherto horrifying suppressed memories of Johnny Depp pretending to be Keith Richards in a pirate hat came rushing back to me. So, it came as a great relief and surprise to discover that this film is not really swashbuckling in the least and features no characters pretending to be Bill Wyman while sporting a Bicorne hat. What it actually is, is in fact a rather successfully funny period comedy. The story basically boils down to a French army captain who goes off to war in Austria but neglects to subsequently send letters to his bride-to-be. This leads to her sister surreptitiously writing fake letters pretending to be him with ever-increasing lies and exaggerations. The problems start when this man returns as a vagabond after having deserted his regiment, leading to him adopting the fake heroic persona created for him by the sister, only increasing the tension between them as a consequence.

This one works in a large part on account of the acting performances from the two leads Jean Dujardin and Mélanie Laurent, who are both major French movie stars. Both of them are quite excellent and funny in their roles, with terrific chemistry. The script is definitely amusing and channels the early 19th century by way of 2018, where at one-point Laurent complains about a sexist comment with the line 'it isn't the Dark Ages, this is 1812!'. So, there is much great verbal interplay between the two leads but pleasingly, the film is not afraid to throw in the odd visual gag too, such as where Dujardin hilariously spits into a baby's carriage. Towards the end, there is an injection of morose realism with a well-acted dinner scene, where Dujardin for once details the true nature of his war experiences. But it has to be said, for the vast majority of the time, this one is very much for laughs. The beautiful period detail and costuming only adds a nice dose of colour and production value to proceedings too. But, the most important factor is that this is a very successfully engaging and funny bit of French comedy.

"Return of the Hero" is a Comedy movie in which we are in 1809, France where Captain Neuville is called to the front exactly after he asks her fiance to marry him. While time passes and Captain Neuville does not send any letters to his bride, her sister starts to write letters on his behalf to cheer her sister up. Everything changes when Captain Neuville reappears after returning from the war.

I liked this movie because I found it very funny and I believe that it had many hilarious scenes. The plot was not the best but worked just fine for this movie and the cast. I have to admit that the interpretations of Jean Dujardin's who played as Capitaine Charles-Grégoire Neuville and Mélanie Laurent's who played as Elisabeth Beaugrand were simply exceptional. The direction which was made by Laurent Tirard had some very interesting and funny moments such as when Jean Dujardin is returning from the war very dirty and accidentally spits on a passing baby. One thing that I did not like was the ending because I think that it was an unnecessary exaggeration and some scenes which were boring.

Finally, I have to say that "Return of the Hero" is an average movie with a few good moments and elements. I am sure that you will have a lot of fun either watching it alone or not and that's the main reason why I recommend it to everyone.

When an officer is called away to war, his fiancee starts to pine. Indeed, her bouts of anger, ennui and sadness become so serious that her relatives begin to fear for her safety. Since no letters from the front are forthcoming, the fiancee's sister decides to write the letters herself, under the officer's name. As week follows week and month follows month, it becomes necessary to invent ever wilder stories about manly derring-do, secret missions and exotic expeditions...

A very funny comedy with enchanting lead performances and an inventive screenplay filled with twists and turns. (I had been fearing some pseudo-Jane Austen cr*p, but thankfully this was not the case.) The beautiful costumes and locations add greatly to the visual charm of the movie. Indeed, they are so good that they might feature in a "straight" history movie or historical drama about the Napoleonic era.

The sister's tales (and their later effects and side-effects) are used in order to mock or question concepts such as heroism, enterprise, manliness, colonial discovery and so on. They also serve to mock or question some of the clichés found in adventure movies, for instance about warfare or wartime derring-do. For instance, there is a rather good joke about the cavalry arriving just in the nick of time, which, of course, is a Cliché with a capital C. Remove this specific element from the history of cinema, and hundreds of Westerns will collapse... (If I remember my "Lucky Luke" comics correctly, there's an equally successful joke about the cavalry arriving - and discovering, with stunned disappointment, that it has NOT saved the day.)

Unsurprisingly, "Le retour" also lampoons the writing of war memoirs.

Well worth a watch - but beware, this is a comedy for adults, not for the whole family.