Epic
Christopher NOlan does what he does best. Trolls can now STFU.
The Odyssey
Director: Christopher Nolan • Writer: Christopher Nolan, based on the epic poem by Homer and translation by Emily Wilson
Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Himesh Patel, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo
UK / USA • 2hrs 52mins
Opens Hong Kong July 16 • IIB
Grade: A-
In case you missed the foundational Western text in high school, The Odyssey follows the “heroic” King of Ithaca, Odysseus (Matt Damon), on his tortured journey home in the wake of the decade-long Trojan War (in The Iliad, along with Achilles for the nobs who freaked out over Elliot Page maybe playing the delicate-ankled one). Along with his second in command Eurylochus (Himesh Patel) he battles a cyclops, shades, giants, Sirens, sea monsters, the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), embittered witch Circe (Samantha Morton), and eventually gets back 20 years later, the sole survivor. While this is going on, back in Ithaca Odysseus’s wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is holding down the fort as best she can in his absence, while his son and heir Telemachus (a perfectly cast Tom Holland) bristles at the way she stalls and placates the various suitors pillaging the palace, chief among them Antinous (Robert Pattinson, who’s cornered the market on snivelling entitlement) and his scumbag ally Polybus (Corey Hawkins). Everyone wants a shot at the throne. When Odysseus gets home, oh, it’s on, baby, and he makes short work of the invaders. Spoiler alert for a three millennia-old book.
Before we get into let’s just start with a smack upside the head for any ideas that somehow Lupita Nyong’o isn’t beautiful enough to play Helen of Troy. Or that Page is somehow unqualified to play a young soldier under Odysseus’s command in. Or that – I haven’t heard this but I assume it’s out there in the cesspool somewhere – classicist professor Emily Wilson has no business translating 7th century BC poet Homer. Seriously, go find her reading the story in the original Greek; it’s amazing and it’s all over the intertoobs. The pre-release pearl-clutching over Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was wilfully inflammatory utter nonsense, entrenched in the attention economy and amplified by undereducated Musk-holes that had nothing valid to say about the film. Partially because they know nothing about filmmaking and mostly because no one had seen it. For the record, The Odyssey is an incredible piece of filmmaking that says plenty about our current political moment, war, power, privilege and the social contract. It pairs nicely with Nolan’s last IMAX behemoth, Oppenheimer, and sort of speaks to those internet fools whining about Black and trans people.
Remember… it’s fiction
Is The Odyssey perfect? No. Are there things to nitpick? Sure. Speaking of racism, why is Patel nowhere in the press materials? None of the social media bigots seem to be bitching about Hawkins playing a villain (gloriously, I might add) because I guess that’s okay for Black actors. And oh yeah, there are questionable sound mix moments. Nolan regular Hoyte van Hoytema’s (Let the Right One In, Nope) cinematography is mind-blowing in part because of all the location shooting (Iceland, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Scotland) that CGI can’t replicate – including in disputed/occupied Western Sahara where human rights abuses of Sahrawis are rampant. Casting trans actors is not icky; shooting around refugee camps is. Hey trolls, you want to call Nolan out on something, there’s a valid argument.
But god knows no film is perfect in its process, and the point of a film like The Odyssey is to take a 3,000-year-old fantasy and make a statement about the world right now by wrapping it in an artistic package that reminds us of why we go to the movies to begin with. Like its Oppenheimer companion piece, The Odyssey is a low key anti-war screed about corrupt leadership rationalising power grabs and the consequences of those actions, military arrogance, Odysseus’s misguided devotion to Agamemnon and finally recognition of his contribution to the collapse of Greek geopolitical stabilty. Like Robert Oppenheimer, Odysseus broke Zeus’s Law and he is “become death.” The Odyssey is another story about hubris and how the end game is almost always conflict and destruction. It’s subtle messaging for Nolan, whose filmmaking strengths have never been rooted in his writing. Once again, the romantic emotion is clunky, but when it counts, when Damon has to dial up Odysseus’s duality – he’s far from the embodiment of honour – shame and regret, the script is spot on.
This is a modern, accessible spin on The Odyssey, and in typical Nolan fashion, his modern, technical prowess and narrative ambition attracted a cast and crew that were able to elevate any of the script’s weaknesses. A nearly flawless non-linear structure, usually a pain in the ass, is the perfect format for allowing us to piece together Odysseus’s story in step with him and live with him on his march towards peace. Duh, the visuals are mouth-watering: van Hoytema toggles between massive oceanscapes and dark, horror-adjacent caves and castles – ancient Greek body horror wasn’t on my 2026 movie bingo card; Ellen Mirojnick’s (Maleficent, Black Bag) sleek costuming and Ruth De Jong’s (Us) tactile production design – the reimagined Trojan Horse is fucking awesome – bring the story into the 21st century; and music by the 21st century John Williams, triple Oscar-winner Ludwig Göransson (Creed, Turning Red, Sinners) is, no surprise, propulsive and transporting when it needs to be. This guy rarely puts a note wrong.
But without a cast that’s up to the task none of the themes fly and it’s all just pretty pictures. Damon does conflicted morality as well as any actor working, Jon Bernthal delivers a little Harvey Keitel-style (in The Last Temptation of Christ) Jersey sass as Spartan king Menelaus, and the boyishness that gets tiring as Spider-Man works for Holland’s Telemachus, who finally gets called out for his impatience and immaturity. Nolan isn’t known for this adept handling of women but Hathaway, Theron and Nyong’o as both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra – Agamemnon’s wife – give their women the kind of agency and identity rarely seen in Homer adaptations. But it’s the MVP trio of Morton as the reactive war survivor Circe, John Leguizamo as Odysseus’s devoted and blind servant Eumaeus (John gonna need a tux for next March) and Page as the angry, heartbreaking soldier Sinon that distil what The Odyssey is about down to its essence – Page in about seven minutes. Nolan has managed to (inadvertently) rise above the fray and dance the fine line between Considered and Meaningful Art and Entertaining Summer Spectacle, ultimately giving audiences a choice as to what they want to see. Going out on a limb to say: Ka-ching!