Christopher Nolan is back with The Odyssey, a big budgeted take on Homer’s epic tale.
Once again boasting major star power (see also: Oscar winner Oppenheimer), Nolan writes and directs a retelling of the classic Greek myth about a man, Odysseus (Matt Damon) who is called away from his home of Ithaca for a war campaign against Troy. But his real journey begins after the Trojan horse when he and his men offend the God Poseidon, who takes every opportunity to take them off course on their trip home.
Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Odysseus’ faithful wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and her nearly adult son Telemachus (Tom Holland) are forced to entertain a host of suitors vying for the Queen’s hand in marriage. As the restless suitors, including Robert Pattison as smarmy coward Antinous, plot Telemachus’ murder and corrupt once-faithful servants like Melantho (Mia Goth) and Melanthius (Logan Marshall-Green), Odysseus and his men must overcome a number of fantastic obstacles such as whirlpools, storms, and famine, as well as innumerable mythological creatures, such as a Cyclops, the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), and Calypso’s (Charlize Theron) amnesia-inducing lotus flowers.
So far, so classical, but Nolan justifies remaking one of the most famous tales of all time in the film’s last act. Throughout the course of the film, Odysseus has been repeatedly confronted (often by the female characters) that his aggressive, battle-forward perspective isn’t the only way to proceed through the world.
Not unlike a Trojan horse of its own, Nolan’s film ultimately repositions not only Odysseus’ journey, but his entire war campaign as a seminal historical event that fundamentally altered the way humans treat each other and, by extension, express their humanity. One of the defining elements of Odyssey is a host’s responsibility to welcome guests with a meal and guarantee them no harm while under their roof (this is referred to, ad nauseam, throughout the film as “Zeus’ Law”). In Nolan’s film, the concept once bound humanity together under a basic tenet, but since Odysseus’ war-winning ruse, its slippery malleability has changed and, in the process, altered the way the world works (for the worse).
This plays like something of a revelation – a dawning realization for Odysseus as he makes his way – and works in tandem with the film’s surprisingly effective third act emotional beats. The latter come courtesy of John Leguizamo, playing Odysseus’ faithful blind servant Eumaeus, as well as Holland and Hathaway – both of whom can shed tears in a way that tugs on audience heartstrings like few others can. The result is a third act the closes out The Odyssey‘s nearly three hour runtime on a high*.
*Also helping matters: Pattinson’s performance as a boastful, but ultimately cowardly man. Watching Antinous crumble in the film’s extended climax in the palace is deeply satisfying. Pattinson’s enthusiasm for playing characters such as this remains one of the best things to emerge in the aftermath of the Twilight franchise.
The fact that Nolan knows how to direct action and that his films are being told almost exclusively on a grand scale the likes of which are unparalleled by his contemporaries (aside from James Cameron) doesn’t hurt. The Odyssey may be a familiar story, but the pacing is brisk and steady; the “filmed entirely with IMAX cameras” means the visuals do pop; and the spectacle is, indeed, grand. In short: those three hours truly race by.
One strange byproduct, however, is that some story beats hit harder than others. Odysseus’ infamous encounter with the Cyclops feels a little quick and the attack by the giants, reimagined here as enormous warriors in armour, is exciting but also feels inconsequential. Instead, the film is at its best when it slows down and allows its talented cast to tease out emotion, such as the trip to Hades where Odysseus must confront the men he’s sacrificed along the way, including Sinon (Elliot Page in a minor, but crucial role) or his tense – and political – conversation with Circe after she’s turned his men into pigs**.
**Unexpectedly this sequence – as Circe works the men’s faces into snouts like they’re made of clay – plays like a body horror film. It’s fantastically unsettling and confirms that Nolan should try his hand at making a horror film because he absolutely has an eye for it.
In general, the women, save Zendaya as the Goddess Athena, all get more to do than typical adaptations of this tale and some effort has been made to acknowledge a more contemporary feminist perspective. At times it feels a little ham fisted (Hathaway has to deliver a clunker about sitting, unacknowledged by men, on Ithaca’s throne for two decades).
Meanwhile “the Discourse” about casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy is confirmed to be <shocker> nothing more than racist rhetoric. The Us actress is fine in her dual role, but she barely has more than a few scenes and she does exactly what she needs to do. The reality is that most of her scenes are dominated by Jon Bernthal as Melenaus, the brother of warmonger Agamemnon (played by Benny Safdie***).
***Though you might not recognize him because Nolan, by virtue of the way he shoots and frames Safdie’s scenes, including the strategic use of Agamemnon’s helmet to obscure his face, seems desperate to keep the filmmaker’s identity a secret. It’s bizarre.
Overall, The Odyssey is rock solid. It’s a big budget blockbuster with a ton of star power; an epic tale told on an epic scale with an epic runtime to boot. While he doesn’t reinvent the wheel, Nolan infuses enough intriguing philosophical, moral, and ethical conflict into Odysseus’ character to justify a modern retelling. There are worse fates than escaping the heat – and the modern world – for 3 hours of air-conditioned escapism. 4.5/5
The Odyssey is playing in theaters July 17
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