Return to Sender is a very Scandinavean film, that seems to have been inadvertantly set in the USA. Given that the film’s about death row prisoners, the US setting (Oklahoma) is correct, but everything else about the film shouts “Nordic”.
That feeling is obviously aided and abeted by the fact that it’s directed by Danish director Bille August, known to British audiences as the director of Pelle the Conqueror and Smilla’s Feeling For Snow. It also stars the wonderful Connie Nielsen (Russell Crowe’s wife in Gladiator) who’s also Danish.
The film revolves around Aidan Quinn’s character, a former death-row layer who now earns a disreputable crust by befriending who seem likeliest not to have their sentence commuted, in the hope of getting given their last letters for valuable publication purposes.
He’s chasing Connie Nielsen’s baby killer, but it slowly becomes clear that despite her lack of denial, there are other factors at work.
The film is slowly paced, and although a thriller in name, it’s not a rushed affair. An interesting and well made film.
Whether it gets a proper UK release remains to be seen – it was made in 2004, and despite being a British co-production (Stephen Woolley is the executive producer), there’s very little sign of it going “wide”.