No one is sure exactly how old Odyssey is. The events it describes, the aftermath of the Trojan War, allegedly happened around 1100 BCE, and Homer’s epic poem was already a staple of Greek literature by 650 BCE, which leaves some wiggle room, historiographically speaking. Nor is anyone sure whether or not the Trojan War actually happened — even the ancient Athenian historian Thucydides had his doubts about 1,100 Greek warships setting sail because Helen left her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta, for Paris, prince of Troy.
But historical accuracy is beside the point. The story is foundational to our culture and our language. An “odyssey” is any long trip, not just one undertaken by Odysseus. Mentor, the name of Telemachus’ tutor, is now a generic term for wise teacher. From Mad Max to Ferris Bueller, there’s a little bit of the two-fisted, smooth-talking trickster Odysseus in just about every modern hero. The structure of the story — a hero meets a bunch of strange characters during his perilous journey home — has been used by everyone from James Joyce to the Coen Bros.
But even in a world where there have been 33 films about Godzilla, direct screen adaptations of Odyssey have been few and far between. Why did even Walt Disney leave a public domain story which literally inspired its own cult unexploited? Maybe it’s because the story sounds very weird to contemporary ears. In Homer’s world, the gods walk around raping women while disguised as swans, and you can get to Hades by sailing to France. Plus, all that sailing around the Mediterranean is really expensive. It took someone like Christopher Nolan, coming off dual Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards for Oppenheimer, with the audacity and influence to pull it off.
And pull it off he did! Rarely have an artist and their subject been so in sync. Nolan is undeniably skilled, but his films have always been hit or miss for me. As a sci-fi fanatic, I should love Interstellar, but it never did much for me. Oppenheimer’s brilliance is undermined by its unnecessarily complex structure. But Greek myth really plays to the director’s strengths. He can bring the spectacle needed to make the epic poem feel epic. If the dialogue is a little clunky, that’s okay, because it was a long time ago, and they didn’t know how to talk good yet. Plus, he’s got that cast!
Matt Damon is to Odysseus as Michael Keaton was to Batman: an unlikely choice that turned out to be exactly right. When we first meet him, he is shacking up with Calypso — and let’s be honest, spending seven years on an island doing drugs with Charlize Theron is the most understandable of Odysseus’ choices. This time around, Nolan’s obsession with nonlinear storytelling serves the material. As Telemachus (Tom Holland) searches for word of his long-missing father, he gets different spins on the story from different storytellers.
Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is stuck. Sure, she’s technically a queen, but her power flows from her relationship to her husband Odysseus, who has been absent for going on two decades. This fact is not lost on the many minor nobles like Antinous (Robert Pattinson) who lurk in her banquet hall hoping to be chosen as the new royal bedmate. Hathaway and Damon are beautiful together in a flashback that sets the stakes for the war, while Pattinson clearly relishes playing the smarmiest guy in ancient Greece. John Leguizamo steals every scene he’s in as the blind swineherd Eumaeus. Likewise Samantha Morton as the witch Circe, whose creep factor is off the charts as she turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. Himesh Patel keeps things lively on the boat as Odysseus’ rebellious right-hand man Eurylochus, while a fearsome Elliot Page berates Odysseus from beyond death. Lupita Nyong’o is riveting as the bitter, war-scarred Helen and her twin sister, the vengeful schemer Clytemnestra. The only actor who feels underutilized is Zendaya, whose main job as Athena is to roll her eyes at Odysseus every time he tries something stupid.
Nolan’s eye for spectacle is one of the best in the business. The Trojan Horse sequence is brutally claustrophobic, and the sacking of Troy is a nightmare of fire and blood. Sound design sets the mood of terror as the crew is trapped in the cave of the Cyclops (Bill Irwin). While many A-list directors are spending their $250 million on reshoots and CGI, Nolan is using his budget to put a full-sized IMAX camera on an actual wooden boat in the actual Aegean Sea, with a bunch of highly paid actors actually rowing for their lives. With The Odyssey, Nolan makes sure that everyone from Universal Pictures executives down to the matinee ticket buyer feels like they got their money’s worth.
