Just as Guillermo Del Toro's "Frankenstein" was a father-son story with redemption and monsters on its mind, Christopher Nolan's version of "The Odyssey" reflects its director's preoccupations with themes he's been exploring for a while - namely the price of glory and the misuse of intellect and power. I think fans of Nolan will expect the nested narratives and achronological storytelling, which follows an amnesiac Odysseus (Matt Damon), and his son Telemachus (Tom Holland) separately learning the truth about what happened after Odysseus's great victory at Troy, and the events of his long journey home. What's a surprise is that this version of "The Odyssey" is such a brooding, psychological take on the story, with more in common with "Oppenheimer" than "The Dark Knight."
First and foremost, however, "The Odyssey" is an epic, one that makes great use of its large budget and stacked cast. Collaborating with cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and composer Ludwig Goransson, Christopher Nolan does a fantastic job of creating memorable action set pieces, bleakly beautiful visuals, and theater-shaking soundscapes, aiming for the kind of epic scale filmmaking that hearkens back to the era of David Lean and Akira Kurosawa. Behold an imposing King Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) in all black armor, who calls an unwilling Odysseus away from his loving wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) to go to war. Here's the massive Trojan Horse jutting out from an empty beach, sinister and portentous. Here's the hut of the witch Circe (Samantha Morton), the cave of the Cyclops (Bill Irwin), and the deceptively peaceful shore of the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron). And here are the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, the Laestrygonians, the Land of the Dead, and the palace of Ithaca. And here's our hero Odysseus on his ship, with his right hand man Eurylochos (Himesh Patel), and a crew willing to follow them to the ends of the earth.
All the most famous, fantastical monsters and miracles from the story are here in one form or another, but it's clear that Christopher Nolan is more interested in Odysseus's inner turmoil. While he's done an impressive job of constructing an IMAX-worthy world of magic islands and ancient kingdoms, abstaining from CGI as much as possible, what's even more impressive is how he resurrects a civilization built on the harsh laws of fickle gods, codes of honor, fatal curses, and bloody sacrifice. It's a universe in turmoil, disrupted by the Trojan War, and a major theme is Odysseus reckoning with his own transgressions and their devastating unintended consequences. There's an abiding melancholy that hangs over the whole film, the roots of which are revealed piece by piece, as Odysseus makes his way home. And in the process Norton completely justifies many of his storytelling choices - the nested narratives, the stark aesthetics, and even some of the casting choices - in a way that caught me by surprise.
I want to make it clear that "The Odyssey" is a very entertaining film. The Greek myths are the progenitors of modern superheroes and arguably the whole adventure genre after all. Matt Damon acquits himself well as Odysseus, and there's a fantastic, slimy villain in Penelope's suitor Antinous (Robert Pattinson) who is so much fun to root against. Each new island offers some new monster or obstacle, so the momentum rarely flags, and there's a big action showdown at the end. However, it was such a pleasure to discover Nolan had found a way to include some very sincere examinations of war, loss, guilt, and heroism in the middle of all of this. The emotional core of the movie is so unexpectedly human and bittersweet, and makes his version of "The Odyssey" very distinct from any other adaptation I've seen. I love how he keeps making the scope bigger, putting in little references and allusions to so many other stories and histories, from Helen of Troy (Lupita Nyongo) to the Sea Peoples at the end of the Bronze Age.
As someone very familiar with The Odyssey by Homer, I can't help feeling a little disappointed about some of the adaptation changes and omissions. The sirens are only seen from a distance, and we don't spend nearly enough time with Circe. The gods are frequently discussed, but only a solemn Athena (Zendaya) appears to Odysseus. On the other hand, I like that much more of the narrative is given over to Penelope and Telemachus trying to keep the suitors at Ithaca in check. My favorite performance in the film may be John Leguizamo as their faithful servant Eumaeus, who has the most expanded role of all the major characters. It's impressive how much of the story Nolan kept, all things considered .
A film of this size and ambition and vision could have only come from one director, and I'm glad that Christopher Nolan got to make his "Odyssey," and make it so unambiguously his own movie.
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