I opted into seeing Eternal Return at TIFF 2025 with very little information. Aside from starring Naomi Scott and Kit Harington, I went in pretty blind, though I did catch rumblings of time travel, which, when done wrong, could be very cheesy. Luckily, the time travel part wasn’t even the strangest thing in Eternal Return. The movie was very fantastical, which I wasn’t prepared for, but at the heart of it had a very sweet story, making for a good, but not great film.
Eternal Return follows the story of Cass (Naomi Scott), a young woman who, in the face of tragedy, loses everything special about herself, her spark, her creativity and more and falls into a corporate world where everything seems soulless. That is, until she stumbles into a mapmaker’s shop and meets Virgil (Kit Harington), and then their adventure begins.
“Luckily, the time travel part wasn’t even the strangest thing in Eternal Return.”
Virgil introduces Cass to his father figure, Malcolm (Simon Callow), and the two reveal that they have found a way to draw a map to the past. After so long in misery, something about Virgil speaks to Cass, and they go on an adventure to build Malcom’s map, and eventually her own, so she can return to a time when she was happy. Pretty fantastical, right?
Scott was able to capture her world full of wonder as a bright-eyed young woman with everything ahead of her, but also mastered her dead-eyed corporate life. She captures so much with her eyes, and though the film plays things quirky and she is the “straight” man, Naomi Scott was really the one to watch in Eternal Return.
That’s not even the strangest part. Cass is also clairvoyant and can see flashes of the future, but loses that ability when she loses herself. Stranger even is the way the story is told, though that is a lot of the film’s charm. Eternal Return focuses on storytelling through quirky dialogue and map-related animations on screen. Think a Johnny Depp film meets the Marauders Map in Harry Potter.
As the trio lay out their map to the past, you can see it being drawn in beautiful graphics on the screen with roads, points of interest and buildings. At one point, they even drive their car across the map itself. The style is beautiful, and it keeps things interesting during the map montages.
“Eternal Return had a lot of great pieces, but sometimes pieces don’t make up the whole.”
Virgil and Malcolm are also very eccentric characters. Harington brings what feels like inspiration from Depp or even Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka. He is soft-spoken and occasionally speaks in riddles. This is not the John Snow you know from Game of Thrones, despite the shyness. Virgil does not appear shy; if anything, he is mildly confident in his quirkiness until we learn more later.
Yet, something about Harrington’s Virgil just doesn’t sit well with me. His oddness is almost unsettling at times. Again, I compare it to Wilder, though not as extreme, in the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka. Malcolm is as fabulous as they come, and something about Callow’s performance really makes you want to be a part of his journey.
A lot of the strange moments in Eternal Return could be forgiven or even appreciated if the overall tone wasn’t so confused. There is a beautiful message about finding yourself, not giving up, etc. There are even lovely messages about found family and love stories. What threw me was the dark undertones that don’t really add anything to the film.
Though some sad moments were used to bond Cass and Virgil, the subject matter got disturbing and changed this film from something possibly fun and family-friendly to, well, not. In this moment, Harington is also at his most awkward, referring to himself as “Little Virgil.” It just felt out of place and completely unnecessary, taking me out of the story and the moment.
Eternal Return had a lot of great pieces, but sometimes pieces don’t make up the whole. With a creative style and a story that had some really unique ideas, in the end, it just doesn’t come together to make a cohesive film.
