Every three years, we tend to get the latest Christopher Nolan film. Arguably, he’s one of the few filmmakers who has more prominence than the stars in his movies. So, it’s always an event when his movies are released.
The man has tackled dreams, magic, black holes, and atomic bombs. And now it’s apparently time for him to take on classic literature that was seemingly mandatory for every high school student – Homer’s The Odyssey.
In The Odyssey, we follow the telling of the story through two viewpoints. We see two decades of time told through the exploits of Odysseus (Matt Damon). Also, we follow his son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), as he tries to decipher what happened to his father since the Trojan War.
Being a Nolan film means that no story will be told sequentially. The Odyssey is no different. We jump through Odysseus’s adventures with his crew and then to the present, and once again back to incidents that started this journey off on the wrong foot. It’s a common trope of the filmmaker, but keeps the pacing rolling quickly
Nolan tends to lean towards the practical whenever he can, so this type of mythological story felt out of his norm. Thankfully, he still manages to create characters and a world that are largely practical. The cyclops is a literal 60-foot animatronic puppet. There’s just something special about a film that feels real because it literally is capturing real footage rather than relying on CG.
The cast is a mixed bag, but closer to the positive side. There doesn’t seem to be enough time to get into character depth, as there’s so much story to be told, but so many of the actors fit their roles wonderfully. There isn’t as much for Hathaway, Theron, and Bernthal to do outside of sharing the story so far. Matt Damon is really impressive as the prideful, and somehow remorseful protagonist. You can see that he wears each of his faults and knows that the cursed journey for his men falls on him. Tom Holland is surprisingly good and becomes a character that becomes the heart of the experience. Robert Pattinson is just so good at playing a creep and gives the third act a character to truly hate.
My main issue with The Odyssey is a major one. The dialogue can be pretty atrocious. It’s not a problem with every line, but it flares up more than I’d prefer. The adaptation is a bit simple and therefore makes character interactions feel very simple. This may have been for audience accessibility, but it took me out of the movie-going experience often. In an effort to modernize the classic saga, Nolan remove some of the class.
In all honesty, I wasn’t completely sold on the movie for the first half. I liked it because it was great filmmaking, good acting, and a great story. All the parts seemed to be there, but it wasn’t emotionally coming together for me. Then, an element of horror in the middle of the film started to change things for me. I was engaged from that point on. And thankfully, the third act/hour started (yes, this movie is 3 hours long) and the movie only gets better from there.
I cannot say enough good things about the ending of this film. It may be Nolan’s best third act. The third hour somehow makes what I considered the most dull part of the story and brings it all together into a thrilling experience that delivers on action and brings the theme into focus. I was amazed by the way it all played out.
I was worried about the Odyssey. I wasn’t sure that it could have worked. It also seemed too big for Christopher Nolan to adapt. And while there are some stumbles with some dialogue that feels dumbed down, the story gets to where it needs to be. It’s what an epic is, before the word was ruined. I have yet to see a Nolan movie I dislike and I’m so grateful to get another quality experience. B+
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