AllMovie

Alan Rudolph's Return Engagement cannot by any stretch of the imagination be labelled "pure cinema." It is essentially a staged confrontation between two aging cultural icons. For nearly 90 minutes, LSD guru Timothy Leary trades insults and profundities with Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy. Despite all the fuss-and-feathers recriminations, Leary and Liddy find that they have a lot in common. Both are "outsiders" whose behavior radically changed many an American's outlook on life, for better or worse. Even though audience interest may flag during the more dogmatic portions of Return Engagement, it is clear throughout that director Rudolph loves both his subjects.