Perhaps there is no other living filmmaker more qualified to adapt THE ODYSSEY than Christopher Nolan. And yes, this includes Spielberg, Scorsese, Coogler, Herzog, Lee, and the rest of the mostly male lists you’ll find all over the internet. Although an animated THE ODYSSEY by Miyazaki would slap hard. His own NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (an adaptation of a manga title) is already inspired by the Nausicaä character from THE ODYSSEY. Just three years after the multi-award-winning OPPENHEIMER, Nolan drops his latest epic tale, and it absolutely soars on every scale.
I am a die-hard Nolan fan. A disciple, if you will, who never misses a chance to see his films on opening night. My fandom started in the spring of 2001 after seeing MEMENTO at the historic Rialto Theatre in Pasadena, CA. I was going through a bad break-up at the time, and my friends dragged me out of the house. I was so enthralled I gathered up a different group of friends to see it again immediately the next night. My favorite Nolan film is INCEPTION, which sparks another core life memory of staying up late with friends, dissecting the dream-within-a-dream structure. I was even one of those folks who reserved a private auditorium during COVID to ensure I could see TENET in the best setting possible at the time. At the same time, I am not without my criticisms of his work when warranted. TENET took me three viewings to even begin to figure out how the time-travel rules work. I don’t love THE PRESTIGE as much as others do. I do defend THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, though, as one of the better Batman films, even if it’s the weakest of that trilogy.
I’ve been cautiously optimistic since this project was first announced. It felt like a great departure for Nolan, but if there was anyone up for it, especially after OPPENHEIMER, it was him. THE ODYSSEY cast is phenomenal, and Ludwig Göransson has never written a better score. The IMAX cinematography, the costumes, the script, the production design, the effects; everything works at 110%. It’s a huge spectacle that is both impressive for being so vast and also for delivering in every small scene or monologue. If Nolan wanted to, he could walk away from filmmaking today, and this would be his legacy. Or perhaps we’ll follow this with a low-budget indie film shot in 2 weeks, and audiences will be lining up just the same.
Let’s talk about the cast. Matt Damon has never been better. He’s about to go on the biggest awards nomination run of his life, and deservedly so. I can’t say he’ll win the awards because I know there are still dozens of Oscar hopefuls yet to release, but he’s earned his place among them. From there, I think we’ll most likely see Anne Hathaway (Penelope) with a Supporting nomination, unless Universal already agreed to put her in the Best Actress category. In my opinion, she’s not in the film enough to warrant this, but I understand how these deals work, and her best work comes in the final act. Who Universal should be pushing in the Supporting Actress category is Samantha Morton as Circe. Her depiction of Homer’s goddess is both alluring and terrifying, an intersection Morton was born to play. Every moment she’s on screen, we forget there’s anyone else in the movie. Nolan’s framing of Circe is also a big departure from the source material. She isn’t merely being cruel to Odysseus and his men as an obstacle, but instead holding a mirror back upon them.
I consider myself a big fan of Tom Holland, but I wasn’t sure if he was right for this movie. Perhaps I’ve gotten too used to him playing Peter Parker in the MCU, and I also haven’t been impressed with his recent projects THE CROWDED ROOM or UNCHARTED. Holland’s portrayal of Telemachus exceeded all of my expectations and has me excited again for seeing him outside his superhero persona. The supporting men of THE ODYSSEY also include Corey Hawkins and Robert Pattinson as two of Penelope’s suitors, Jon Bernthal as Helen of Troy’s (Lupita Nyong’o) husband Menelaus, and Elliot Page as the cunning soldier Sinon. Each is perfectly cast, with Pattinson having the largest role of the three. He clearly looks like he’s having the most fun of any of the actors, and his characterization of Antinous feels Shakespearean. Witnessing Page return to work with Nolan, even in a small but pivotal role, brought tears to my eyes. Elliot is always who he told us he was, and I hope to see him in bigger roles in the future.
Now, outside of Morton, two other actors in the film who deserve more press and flowers are John Leguizamo as Eumaeus and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus. Both characters are faithful to Damon’s Odysseus but inhabit very different worlds, never appearing in a scene together. Leguizamo has long been a favorite comedian of mine, and when he gets to inhabit wondrous characters such as Tybalt in Baz Luhrmann’s ROMEO + JULIET or Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in MOULIN ROUGE!, we the audience are always in for a special treat. While every creative should take any role they desire, I personally would love to see Leguizamo cast in more dramatic roles.
This leaves Patel as my absolute favorite performance (outside of Damon) in the entire film. Eurylochus is Odysseus’s second-in-command on his perilous 10-year journey from the end of the Trojan War back home to his kingdom in Ithaca. Patel is in most of the same scenes as Damon and yet has been largely left out of a lot of the publicity. I first came to love Patel in STATION ELEVEN, a tragic yet magical limited series that aired on HBO MAX back in 2021. If you haven’t seen it, I cannot recommend it enough, and the novel it’s based on, by Emily St. John Mandel, is just as lovely. Patel’s performance works so well with Damon’s that when Odysseus is alone, you feel Eurylochus’s absence. Nolan’s Odysseus is so honorable he gives his prey a chance to flee, plucking an empty bowstring so they hear him coming. Eurylochus often doubts Odysseus’s thoughtful decisions, choosing instead to be impulsive and often reckless, the very things that can tear an army apart. He serves as a perfect foil to Damon, but never an antagonist. He too is a true hero, just cut from a different cloth. Patel, 36, is still young enough to be considered for a wide swath of leading roles from romance to action. The British actor could be an incredible James Bond if they don’t choose someone in their 20s. But what’s crystal clear here, if it wasn’t already, is that Patel is ready for the big BIG leagues. Give him the roles that his white counterparts are getting offered. He could easily fall into a career like Leonardo DiCaprio’s if he wanted to.
I suspect there will be objections about how certain members of the cast, who have been a large part of the film’s promotions, aren’t in the film very much at all. And I assure you that the complaints that have dogged Nolan for years over how he writes women characters in his films will follow him here. But A-list stars do generally sell tickets. And if you haven’t seen me discuss a particular actor or actress above, it’s not because I don’t love them, but rather because they don’t get enough screen time to really discuss.
I could absolutely write another 3 pages about the cinematography, production design, costumes, and music of THE ODYSSEY. It goes without saying that this movie should be celebrated for filming entirely in IMAX. I was lucky to see it in 70mm at an independent historic theatre in Los Angeles, but my next viewing will be 70mm IMAX for sure. In the age of digitally shot movies, the last two films I’ve seen on screen (this and THE INVITE) were both shot on film, and I wish we had more of this.
Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema has worked with Nolan 4 times before and won the Oscar for OPPENHEIMER. He’s guaranteed another nomination and is clearly the early favorite to win. THE ODYSSEY is fiction, taking place in an ancient otherworld filled with magic and monsters, and van Hoytema’s work behind the camera brings it to life. Together with both the practical and visual effects led by Scott R. Fisher and Andrew Jackson, respectively, Odysseus’s journey from Troy to Ithaca always feels like it could have really happened, giants and cyclopes and sirens and all.
The phrase “Trojan horse” has become ubiquitous in the English language, a very particular kind of trick and ambush. And while I am no scholar of Homer and the classics, I’ve read that the depiction of the horse as a ruse (an offering to the goddess Athena that leads to the defeat of Troy) is more modern than the ancient story. Had Nolan adapted the poem a bit more cleanly, the themes of homecoming, loyalty, betrayal, temptation, and fate would still have been a part of the story. Yet as a film, an emotional center would have been easily left out. Instead, Nolan looks to Odysseus’s heart and imagines what a hero might feel after successfully completing the biggest ruse of all time. And because it’s impossible to review any new piece of art without comparing it to <big arm swoop> everything that’s going on in the world, we, the audience, feel what Odysseus feels. Have we, as humans, taken every little dirty trick to deceive each other so far that there truly is no return? The film doesn’t quite answer this, but it absolutely raises the question and leaves us thinking about it as the credits roll.
It’s playing in theatres now.
