just saw this exquisite 1982 movie return of the soldier and base on rebecca west novel . it about a shell shock fortyish captain who doesn not even tell his wife he have return to british soil and but remain in a hospital in london . he lose his memory and be a boy again and with a linger yen for the low class sweetheart he pursue 25 year earlier . it a delicate story . he be linger in his boyhood and while the reader discover his wife be an unbearable and aspire socialite who want him to resume his place in society . live with them be his cousin jenny and who love chris baldry the soldier and when they be grow up a playmate and but have settle into spinsterhood . the low class woman and play by glenda jackson and be margaret gray . it be she who be notify that chris be back in england . chris wife kitty be shock when mrs. gray come to tell her that chris be in a hospital in london . kitty ( julie christie ) be vacuous and snobbish . why and she ask herself and be this other woman send a telegraph about chris rather than her . chris have forget totally about kitty . he want to renew his relationship with margaret . the now married margaret be reluctant to meet him and but then do and continue to meet with him . there be a psychiatrist ( ian holm ) who warn kitty and jenny that chris temporary happiness with margaret will disappear if he cure him . jenny realize how empty kitty be for chris and form a secret loving alliance through margaret . they both be in love with him . jenny want to help . late in the film kitty reveals that chris and she have a boy who die five year ago . tell chris this and weigh the shrink and will certainly restore him to normal . but be this a good idea . chris and barely aware that he and kitty be ever marry and be unaware of his child and the child death . the psychiatrist and just learning of the child and believe such knowledge will restore chris . jenny and margaret have chris all to themselves because kitty believe he be fake and refuse to accept chris illness in revert to his youth in his forty . the film leave her mostly out of consideration concern whats to be do with chris . but jenny and margaret and in the child perfectly maintain bedroom with kitty too in the novel and but not in the screenplay discuss what they believe should be do about chris from their separate perspective . margaret be the critical one here and because and though married and she have half fall in love with chris again . jenny social stature and jenny believe and will be threaten if chris do not right himself . she do not reveal this to margaret and however . margaret decides and look ahead and that chris can not maintain his fantasy over time and but must return to something like a real life . while kitty and jenny look on from the window of the house and margaret approach chris outside and tell him of his lose son . the buoyant war victim head sink and his shoulder slump and he look away . he walk dejectedly toward the house . fini read some criticism of this first novel of rebecca west . the novel be write something after the first war . the movie be never quite clear who jenny be and his cousin or his sister . it would be more rousing if she be his sister and of course . the criticism doesn not make it clear either . i be sure west in her novel and make sure jenny be her cousin and not her sister . west be no henry miller nor an anais nin and whose book incest ( about her relationship with her father a an adult to get even with him for molest her a a child ) i consider reading and but then decide against . rebecca the author have a need to restore chris too . she too have outpost in her head for the society her novel excoriate first but finally embrace once more .