Unless you spent the weekend cooped up in a Trojan horse you will know that Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, landed in cinemas on Friday. As a lifelong fan of the Greek myths, I was desperate to see it and so come 8.30pm found myself settled into a comfy sofa at the Chelmsford Everyman (if only Odysseus and his men were so cushioned in the galley of their boat) for 172 minutes of conniving suitors, lovesick ladies and greedy pigs…
But enough of my fellow cinemagoers, I’m here to write about the film which racked up $264 million (£196 million) over its opening weekend, a record for Nolan. The success of the picture isn’t purely commercial either given that it garnered a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a critical reception far more positive than the one the Greeks received in Troy.
After going on the journey with Matt Damon et al., I can certainly appreciate the film’s siren call to the pen-wielding class, but there is likely an element of groupthink at play – which as those familiar with The Odyssey will know is best avoided. So if you like your reviews clear-eyed rather than one-eyed, here are three things I loved about the film and three things I most definitely didn’t…
Three things I loved about The Odyssey…
1. The special effects
My appreciation of the CGI surprised even me as typically I really dislike movies which are overly reliant on special effects. Indeed, the box-office success of The Avengers franchise is about as damning an indictment of democracy as you are likely to find. Yet in The Odyssey Nolan uses CGI superbly. The rendition of the Cyclops is grotesquely magnificent, the creature’s famed single eyeball more congenital disease than anatomical feature. And the witch Circe’s porcine transformation of Odysseus’s crew is perhaps the single most revolting yet riveting bit of cinema I have ever seen.
2. Matt Damon’s sensitive killer
Having seen the Bourne movies I knew Damon could fight but he takes his fighting chops to a whole new level here. The scene where he dispatches an entire hall full of suitors manages to feel plausible, not cartoonish, in Damon’s violent hands. As well as drawing on Jason Bourne, he also draws on a whole range of his cinematic canon, imbuing Odysseus with the intellectual asymmetry of Will in his breakout film, Good Will Hunting, as well as the cunning of The Talented Mr Ripley. In his own understated way, Matt Damon is pound-for-pound Hollywood’s most compelling male performer.
3. Odysseus’s regret
If the above allusion to Will Hunting’s “intellectual asymmetry” was a little Delphic, then let me elucidate. In Nolan’s retelling of The Odyssey, Odysseus – the progenitor of the wooden horse ruse to get the Greeks into Troy – is filled with regret at the consequences of his actions which are depicted in various flashbacks showing how the besieging hordes brutally unleashed 10 years of pent-up frustration on Troy’s largely defenceless citizens. Nolan’s Odysseus is a man of honour – shown by the plucking of his bow when hunting to give prey a chance to escape. His Trojan Horse – the epitome of duplicity – was thus antithetical to everything he stood for. This penitent interpretation of Odysseus is certainly not hinted at in the original text or its innumerable adaptations so Nolan really has achieved something both new and visionary: Odysseus’s journey is less a voyage home and more a road/sea to redemption.
Three things I really didn’t like about The Odyssey…
1. American anachronism
While I was not expecting the cast to speak Greek or put on Greek accents, the overwhelming number of American accents present felt horribly anachronistic. When Tom Holland’s Telemachus travels to Sparta to seek news of his father, he is welcomed by Menelaus in a manner more akin to that of a wise guy than an ancient Greek king.
And talking of Tom Holland, why was he speaking in an American accent?! He’s from Kingston-upon-Thames in Surrey for heaven’s sake, not exactly Athens, granted, but certainly not downtown New York.
© Deadline via Getty Images2. Lack of cohesion
While Nolan is heralded for his twisty storytelling (Inception still baffles me), his film here sorely lacks a central narrative focus. It can’t decide if it wants to be more about Odysseus’s son, Telemachus, his wife, Penelope, or Odysseus himself – and while the constant switching between narratives and myriad flashbacks is very much faithful to the original (Odysseus’s tale isn’t told until book nine) it does make for a rather disjointed watch. As a result, much of the movie’s tension and jeopardy is lost.
3. The underemployment of Calypso
If ever an actress walked this earth born to play the implausibly beautiful daughter of Atlas in The Odyssey it is Charlize Theron. In the poem, Calypso detains Odysseus for seven years after falling in love with him when he washes up on her shore. In the film, the relationship between Calypso and Odysseus feels more platonic than romantic – with Theron in the main limited to strolling around the beach looking great but not doing much else.
© Getty ImagesIn fairness, perhaps the story of the pair needs a movie of its own to do it justice, and of course I wasn’t expecting Hallmark-esque montages as they skipped along the beach holding hands – I just think more effort could have been put into Calypso’s character, instead of just relying on Theron’s ethereal good looks…
Over to you…
You’ve read my thoughts but now I want to hear yours. If you’ve seen the movie, please participate in the poll below to give it a rating out of five, and then expand on your rating in the comments below. Do you agree with me or am I more barking mad than Circe herself?!
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