Lauded director Christopher Nolan released his 13th feature film, “The Odyssey” July 17. Since the first teaser dropped, this film has been a hotbed of discussion, drawing reactions across the spectrum from excitement to criticism, primarily over certain casting choices. However, with a career-best global opening weekend at the box office for Nolan and overwhelmingly positive critical and audience reception, it looks like smooth sailing for “The Odyssey” into award season — though whether Nolan has fully earned those laurels is less certain.
“The Odyssey,” starring Matt Damon as the titular Odysseus, is based on Homer’s ancient poem of the same name and takes place after the Trojan War that is chronicled in Homer’s preceding poem, “The Iliad.” Following the 10 years spent in Troy, “The Odyssey” details the long-winded journey home of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca and the mastermind behind the Trojan Horse that ended the Trojan War and ensured Grecian victory. From escaping a cyclops to journeying to Hades, the film is structured as a series of vignettes, playing with time and memory before culminating in Odysseus’s return to Ithaca and attempt to reclaim his throne.
On a technical level, the film adaptation leaves nothing to be desired. The series of vignettes told over the course of the 172-minute runtime allow Nolan to work with a variety of massive set pieces, filming on location across Morocco, Italy, Scotland, Iceland and Greece, in addition to some sequences shot on a soundstage in the United States. The proclivity to filming in nature grounds the film in reality and helps viewers feel the massive scope of this journey across the sea.
The film is the first in history to be completely shot with 70mm IMAX film cameras, and the visual effect is staggering. Each scene looks larger than life, and the battle scenes particularly stand out for their immersiveness. For example, the scene in which Agamemnon — the commander of the Greeks in the Trojan War — leads his men through the gates of Troy contains one of the most visually arresting shots in recent film memory.
Some of the film’s best moments occur when Nolan diverges from his typical action genre and leans into horror, which is elevated by the use of practical effects. Nolan said he wanted the Cyclops sequence to feel real, so the crew built a 60-foot puppet combined with a human actor and used it for multiple shots to give the actors a sense of scale and danger. Additionally, when the crew lands on the island of the witch Circe, the men undergo a complete physical transformation. The scene plays as pure body horror, including a man’s jaw being cracked open as Circe — played by standout Samantha Morton — reaches down his throat to mold him into a new creature. This scene was filmed without any computer-generated imaging, instead using animatronics and prosthetics to distort and reshape the skin by hand. The effect is mesmerizing and disturbing, and showcases some real horror chops from Nolan, a director who is not typically associated with that genre.
Another aspect that Nolan nails in “The Odyssey” is its pacing and consistent momentum. With a nearly three-hour runtime, it would be remiss to describe this film as anything other than “epic.” The film flies by, feeling closer to two hours than three due to its expert pacing and use of cross-cutting.
While the visuals are sure to elicit awe and emotional reactions from the viewers, the writing and performances unfortunately lack that same emotional depth. The cast is full of Hollywood “A-Listers” including Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson, which initially sparked backlash as audiences expressed their desire to see fresh faces instead of the same recycled actors. Unfortunately, that critique holds merit, because although none of these veteran actors deliver bad performances, many of them also never quite disappear convincingly into the ancient world they are meant to be inhabiting.
Some — like Charlize Theron’s Calypso, whose talent is largely wasted with little for her character to contribute to the movie — feel miscast in the context of their characters, while others are underserved by a script that waffles between perfectly serviceable and jarringly clunky. Nolan has often been criticized for underwriting female characters, using them as plot devices or vehicles for male character development. This piece of criticism feels especially fitting with Zendaya’s depiction of the goddess Athena, who is reduced from her central role in the original story to an afterthought — a manifestation of Odysseus’s guilt rather than the powerful goddess whose actions greatly influence the course of the original story.
Although “The Odyssey” cannot be judged for its accuracy to the source material — especially because Nolan’s adaption intends to function more as an exploration of war and its costs than the original story of a wily hero foiled by pride — these changes reduce the characters’ complexity and make them less interesting and believable, ultimately undercutting beats in the film that should be eliciting more emotional payoff.
One of the clearest examples is Odysseus, who Damon plays as a beaten down leader battling guilt, mostly without the cunning and charm of the original. He delivers a good acting performance, but does not manage to come across as a realized or convincing character. His lack of dimension can be blamed partly on an uneven script, with cringe-worthy lines like “Our age of bronze is collapsing” — noteworthy for its blatant historical inaccuracy as well as general absurdity — jarring audiences out of the realism this film strives for. Nolan’s precursor to this film, “Oppenheimer,” was anchored by a profoundly emotional performance from Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer — a man who, like Odysseus, is tortured by the guilt of his own creation. Comparing the two central characters, it is evident that Odysseus was bogged down by mediocre writing and a less convincing performance.
While the film may not fully connect on an emotional level, “The Odyssey” is ultimately an incredibly entertaining and well-made film, and a triumphant success in its look and grandeur. Any viewer looking for an immersive experience and a visual spectacle is sure to be delighted, but viewers are best served by going in with hazier memories of the original to avoid disappointment over the film’s inaccuracies. However, it is a marvel that a film like this exists at all due to its pioneering use of technology and miraculous storytelling techniques, spinning a tale told nearly three millennia ago, and Nolan’s work deserves not only to be seen, but to be seen on the largest screen possible.
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