Return to Sender did have some potential, a subject that is hard-hitting and easy to relate to and Rosamund Pike and Nick Nolte are watchable in a lot of their work. Return to Sender has some decent assets, but overall is pretty messy and like a missed opportunity.

Pike is nowhere near as good as her deservedly Oscar-nominated performance in Gone Girl (a far superior film, no matter how polarising it is, and Amy is much more interestingly written than Miranda),but she still plays the role with charisma and an appropriate iciness. Shiloh Fernandez has his unsure moments but mostly suitably sleazy, but the film's best performance comes from Nick Nolte, whose sympathetic performance gives a glimmer of emotional backbone and his character is the one character and asset that is halfway credible. Return to Sender is reasonably well-filmed too and fits the atmosphere well with some nice shots.

The rest of the cast reads of acting like wooden marionettes, and none of the characters are fleshed out are often underwritten. Apart from some of the camera work, the production values are generally too TV-film quality and the direction is lazy and confused, showing a lot of inexperience in the genre, a lack of suspense and a lack of ability to make the narrative cohesive. The script is illogical, predictable and completely lacking in realism, the way it flows and is delivered also never feels natural. The story is all over the place and doesn't know what it wants to be, it does agreed feel like three different films and it does little with the second and third acts, the first act actually does have a little tension and some genuine sympathy for Miranda.

However, the character study second act has some far too pedestrian and lazy pacing, far too wooden and underdeveloped characterisation (with the exception of Nolte) and emotional impact is minimal (only provided by Nolte). And the third revenge act is sorely devoid of tension or suspense, increasing predictability to the extent that you're exclaiming 'we knew it!' and suffers from Miranda's actions not being believable for a second. The ending is very rushed and even the open feel felt abrupt and under-explained, it is also rather brutal and any sympathy felt for Miranda in the first act is completely diminished here.

Overall, messy (with the biggest offender being the story) and a missed opportunity, with its moments (the performances of Pike, Nolte and Fernandez, some nice shots and a decent first act). 4/10 Bethany Cox

Miranda Wells (Rosamund Pike) is a hospital nurse. Her friends set her up on a blind date. She finds William Finn (Shiloh Fernandez) on her door step and assumes him to be her date. She lets him in and he rapes her. The police later catches him. She is told that her rape has made it hard to sell her house. Her hands start shaking and she can't advance to be a surgical nurse. Her nice persona changes and she writes a letter to William in prison. It is sent back with Return to Sender. Mitchell Wells (Nick Nolte) is her father and Nancy (Camryn Manheim) is her best friend co-worker.

Fouad Mikati's directions are only TV movie level. It's a waste of cinematic level talents of the cast. I have no complaint about the cast but it doesn't rise up to their level. It's also not comparable to Lifetime movies or anything of that sort. It is really disconcerting to see talents wasted this way. One of my pet peeves is the metallic echo when they speak to each other over the prison phones. It's one of the wrong choices that keep this movie down. It's too static with much of the time spent in that prison visiting booth. Any shocking descent is flattened by that stationary camera work. By the time he gets out, the movie is two thirds over and I stop caring about the rest. There is an obvious twist that is done much better in Hard Candy. This would be a good Twilight Zone or a horror TV episode. It's not cinematic enough to be theatrical.

The single nurse Miranda Wells (Rosamund Pike) is preparing to become surgical nurse and is buying the house of her dreams. Miranda is very close to her father Mitchell Wells (Nick Nolte) that is helping her to fix her house to sell it to raise the necessary money to buy the other house. One day, a colleague schedules a blind date with a sweet man called Kelvin. Miranda is still getting dressed when she sees a man on the porch. She assumes that the man is Kevin and invites him in, but he is actually a rapist that rapes her. When the real Kevin arrives, he finds Miranda in the kitchen and calls the police. Miranda identifies the rapist William Finn (Shiloh Fernandez) that is immediately arrested. When she recovers, her life turns upside down since nobody wants to buy her house and she can not be a surgical nurse since her right hand has tremors after the rape. Out of the blue, she writes a letter to William but the letter returns to her. She insists on sending it and when she receives a reply, she goes to the prison to visit William. When Williams is released, he is welcomed by Miranda in her house. What is happening to Miranda?

"Return to Sender" is a flawed thriller about a woman that sees her life partially destroyed after a rape. The Brazilian title is a spoiler since discloses that it is a story of revenge. However the plot is flawed since there are many evidences that Miranda had visited William in the prison and might have witnesses seeing the man working at her house. Therefore, in case of any investigation of his disappearance, Miranda could be a suspect since she has the motive. There are more smart means of revenging. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Sede de Vingança" ("Thirsty of Revenge")