The Odyssey, one of the most famous stories in existence, was recently adapted by Christopher Nolan in a long-awaited 3 hour blockbuster movie. The film featured a star-studded cast including Zendaya, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, and Robert Pattinson. It also had record-breaking opening weekend numbers, cementing it as one of the year’s biggest box office successes. But personally, as both a film and English buff, the film has some serious problems.
There’s no disputing the fact that the film is an achievement in filmmaking. From its practical effects and gorgeously shot action-sequences, it’s truly impressive to watch. However, even as explosions, shipwrecks, and sweeping battle sequences fill nearly every scene, there’s little room left for the audience to actually emotionally resonate with the characters and feel anything for them. Despite its three hours of runtime, the film lands emotionally flat and somewhat shallow.
Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland’s performances don’t help matters. Their acting throughout feels wildly overwrought, all big gestures and dramatic flourishes that never quite land as genuine emotion. This is especially true for Tom Holland, who can’t quite break out of his Spiderman-mold. It felt as though I was watching Tom Holland perform, without him genuinely embodying and transforming into Telemachus.Â
The script itself is arguably the film’s biggest weakness. The dialogue is clunky, the pacing is uneven, and character motivations often feel like an afterthought. Odysseus is framed as a war hero suffering from what’s clearly meant to evoke PTSD, and the audience is nudged to sympathize with his trauma. But this conveniently ignores that it’s his own hubris with the Cyclops and the gods that get his men killed. The film wants him to be tragic without holding him accountable. It also glosses over his infidelity, as in the original story, Odysseus sleeps with both Circe and Calypso during his journey home. The movie conveniently leaves out this detail to instead paint him as a devoted husband pining for Penelope. Furthermore, Telemachus’ coming-of-age story felt entirely unbelievable. The film spends the majority of the time calling him a kid who is not worthy of leading. It’s only when he kills someone in the last battle that he’s suddenly deemed capable of being king. However, this is contradictory as the film has been actively condemning the violence that occurs during war, yet celebrates Telemachus when he participates in that same violence.Â
Even Emily Wilson, who wrote the 2017 translation of the Odyssey, which Nolan himself cited as inspiration, has been openly critical of the film. Wilson said the movie lacks psychological, emotional, political, and ethical depth, and said she’d be ashamed to be involved in the film.
Ultimately, The Odyssey might do some good by getting people curious about the original poem again. But this film is at its core, not the complex, layered epic Homer wrote. It’s a loud, overproduced spectacle that entirely oversimplifies its epic source material.