Josh Reviews The Odyssey
The Odyssey is yet another triumph by Christopher Nolan, who is without question one of our greatest masters of cinema. Mr. Nolan makes it look so easy! With the exception of Tenet (which I found to be incomprehensible), I have loved all of his films, and I consider several of them to be true masterpieces. The Prestige and The Dark Knight are two of my all-time favorite films. I’ve seen Oppenheimer twice; I liked it a lot on a first viewing, and I absolutely loved it on a second. Memento, Inception, Interstellar and Batman Begins are terrific; and Dunkirk is extraordinary. Each time I think Mr. Nolan can’t possibly top himself, well, he goes and does just that.
I can now add The Odyssey to my list of Mr. Nolan’s achievements, because I was absolutely riveted by every second of this film. What a journey! Mr. Nolan has created a complete meal of a movie, one that is ferociously entertaining and also a gorgeous work of art. As you’re probably well aware, this is a long movie. It’s almost three hours long. And yet I never for a moment got antsy or impatient watching the film. I was completely absorbed. Mr. Nolan (who wrote and directed the film) and editor Jennifer Lame have done a magnificent job in pacing and structuring the film so as to keep the audience totally engaged with the story. (My only complaint with Oppenheimer after a first viewing was that I thought it was too long and the whole last 45 minutes weren’t necessary. As I noted above, I do feel differently now after having rewatched the film and given it the time to sit with me. Going into The Odyssey, I wondered if I’d have a similar reaction, but I did not at all. I loved every minute of this film, and I think it was exactly the length it should have been.)
I’ve been a fan of Matt Damon’s for so long. I enjoyed him in School Ties and Courage Under Fire and Chasing Amy, and then of course I discovered him as a star along with the rest of the world when Good Will Hunting came out in 1997. It’s been fun to watch his career since then, which has included impressive acting performances along with fun, crowd-pleasing hits. The Odyssey might be the best combination of those two sides of Mr. Damon’s work that I have ever seen. Mr. Damon is magnetic in the lead role as Odysseus. Mr. Damon’s inherent likability helps keep us rooting for this man throughout the many twists and turns of his twenty years away from home. I love that we get to see Odysseus’ fierce intelligence and bravery honor, and his skills as a leader. But we also see his failings, such as his reckless act that causes such mayhem in the Cyclops sequence. Mr. Damon beautifully plays both sides of this character.
Anne Hathaway is every bit his match as Odysseus’ wife Penelope, left behind for twenty years and fighting with everything she has to hold together her kingdom and maintain hope that someday Odysseus will return to her. Ms. Hathaway is tremendous in the role, magnetically watchable. I like the ways Mr. Nolan found to keep Penelope central in the story. I love the biting monologue he gave her for late in the film, in which Penelope finally lets her guard down and rages against the patriarchal world she’s found herself trapped in, despite her position as queen.
Tom Holland was instantly lovable as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the MCU, right off the bat from his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War. He’s matured into a compelling and nuanced actor, and he’s wonderful here as Odysseus’ son Telemachus. Telemachus is brave and noble, and he’s just on the cusp of being able to be a leader of men himself. But he’s not there yet, and he’s every bit as trapped as Penelope. I really like the way Mr. Holland played Telemachus’ youth and limitations, without ever falling into the trap of being an annoying brat. (See, for example, Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels.) Instead, I was rooting for Mr. Holland’s Telemachus just as much as I was for Odysseus! This is critical for the film. If I was bored and impatient every time we cut back to Ithaca and Telemachus, the film wouldn’t work.
Then there is Robert Pattinson as Antinous, the main suitor we see courting Penelope and scheming to take control of Ithaca. Mr. Pattinson is amazing!! He’s created a stand-out slimy cretinous villain in Antinous. What a performance. This is an all-time classic movie villain.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of this film’s incredible cast! John Leguizamo is wonderful as Eumaeus, the blind slave who is deeply loyal to Odysseus. Mr. Leguizamo brought such dignity and richness of humanity to this character. Lupita Nyong’o is luminous as both Helen of Troy and her twin sister Clytemnestra. Ms. Nyong’o doesn’t have much screen time, but she’s a memorable and commanding presence whenever we see her. Speaking of commanding screen presence, Zendaya also makes a strong impact, despite relatively little screen time, as the goddess Athena. Her scenes are almost exclusively with Mr. Damon’s Odysseus, and I really enjoyed that pairing. Samantha Morton almost steals the movie from the rest of the cast with her phenomenal sequence as the goddess Circe. Jon Bernthal (who is also sharing the screen with Tom Holland this summer in Spider-Man: Brand New Day) is a hoot, chewing the scenery as King Menelaus. Charlize Theron is perfectly mysterious, with just the right touch of danger, as the nymph Calypso. Himesh Patel (Station Eleven) is terrific as Odysseus’ right-hand-man Eurylochus. Elliot Page is strong as the Greek soldier Sinon. I wasn’t sure why Mr. Page was cast in this small role, until we arrived at his final critical scene in Hades, in which Mr. Page just knocks it right out of the park. Benny Safdie strikes a powerfully imposing figure as the Greek King Agamemnon. I love the gorgeous design of his armor, and the way Mr. Nolan frames him as a giant, dominating whatever frame he’s in. It’s very cool. Ryan Hurst is wonderful as Telemachus’ trainer and guide Mentor, and Mia Goth (Frankenstein) is great as Penelope’s disloyal maidservant. What a cast!!
Going into the film, I wondered how Mr. Nolan would handle the more fantastic elements of The Odyssey, with all the gods and monsters. Relatively early on, there’s a sequence in which we see that Odysseus’ men have become convinced that the gods have cursed them. OK, I thought to myself: now I understood the middle ground Mr. Nolan would be taking; allowing the suggestion that the gods had cursed Odysseus but not actually showing that. But then, I was pleasantly surprised that we did get to see plenty of fantastic monsters and creatures, and also that the gods did have a presence in the film, most notably in the form of Athena, played by Zendaya. I loved this! I am happy that Mr. Nolan was able to craft a film that on the one hand felt grounded and “real”, but that also had lots of fantastical adventure elements in it!! This is extremely well-done.
Mr. Nolan’s well-known favoring of practical effects over CGI is on display to beautiful effect here. There’s a visceral reality to this adventure movie, because we know so much of it was actually done for real! The real locations in the film are gorgeous and transporting! The sequences of Odysseus and his men at sea are gripping because we know they weren’t just in some tank somewhere with a green-screen behind it. The strange design of the Cyclops is incredibly memorable, and the practical effects used to bring that creature to life help make that one of the stand-out sequences in the film! (Just as I always thought that was one of the most memorable parts of Homer’s The Odyssey.)
I praised the editing of this film above, and it’s worth discussing again. This film covers 10 years in the life of these characters (actually 20, because Odysseus spent 10 years fighting the Trojan War). I went into this movie wondering just how Mr. Nolan and his team would capture the long time-span of this story. That felt like a real challenge to me. I’m so impressed by how well they did it. The editing guides us smoothly through the story, shifting us back and forth through time in a way that perfectly peels back the layers of the tale and these characters. I was surprised that we started the movie almost at the end of the story, with the suitors having been gathered in Ithaca for years. But that worked perfectly, as did pretty much all of the storytelling choices made by Mr. Nolan and editor Jennifer Lame. This film has a narrative that’s actually as complicated and fractured as many of Mr. Nolan’s other films — however, it doesn’t FEEL complicated or fractured! The shifts back and forward in time are so smooth as to almost be unnoticeable. It’s an extremely impressive achievement, and key to the film’s working as well as it does.
In recent years, my one recurring complaint about Mr. Nolan’s films has been the sound mix, in which I often found it challenging to hear the characters’ dialogue clearly. (I’ve written about this in many of my review of Mr. Nolan’s films, most notably Tenet.) And so I was pleased that here in The Odyssey, not only do I have no complaints about the sound mix, but actually I thought the sound was one of the film’s most surprisingly impactful elements. As we enter the climax of the film, the soundtrack builds in volume to a roar that I felt had a real physical impact. This film gets LOUD. I’ve seen some comments online by a few people who found that unpleasant, but I thought it was a masterful choice. As the intensity of the film’s emotional climax builds to a crescendo, the soundtrack is a critical part of the effect, making me as an audience-member feel like I am right in the middle of everything going on.
I loved the choices Mr. Nolan made with the film’s ending. As the movie was going on, I was loving it, but I did ask myself a few times: what does Mr. Nolan want us to think about Odysseus? He has heroic qualities, but also a number of very human failings. But then we get Odysseus’ powerful monologue at the end, reflecting on the meaning of his actions at the end of the Trojan War, and everything clicked into place. I felt I perfectly understood what Mr. Nolan was trying to say, and I was moved by the sentiment. The statement about honor and civility feels so important in today’s world. I also loved the explanation of the film’s depiction of Athena; why only Odysseus was seeing her, and why she was appearing in that specific form. I thought that was beautiful.
As a Jewish audience member, I did find it somewhat strange how the film kept repeating the idea, over and over again, of what it called “Zeus’ law” of hospitality to others, especially guests. I love the message! But that idea has its origins in the Jewish Torah! The idea to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” is in Leviticus 19:18. I’m not sure how it could have naturally been woven into this story of Odysseus and other Greeks that this was a Jewish idea, but nevertheless it seemed strange how Mr. Nolan’s film seemed to attribute this idea to the Greeks. This is a min or quibble in a masterpiece of a film.
The Odyssey is best enjoyed on the largest screen you can find! Don’t miss the opportunity to see this movie in a movie theater, the way it’s meant to be seen!!
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