Review | Believe the Hype of ‘The Odyssey’ 

Among its many virtues, Christopher Nolan’s ambitious film take on The Odyssey has managed to put the erudite subject of Homer’s epic poem into the whirlpool of general public, mass audience discourse. That reach includes portions of the American demographic more versed in the world of another Homer — Simpson. Audiences are rounding up the kids and other average citizens and filling theaters for this thinking person’s yet also action-packed summer blockbuster. Go figure. 

True confession: I am in the ranks of the unwashed and as-yet unread, having skipped over this classic in high school. (I have read James Joyce’s Ulysses. Does that give me some secondary cred?) Soon, I will have joined the enlightened and read the epic poem, as soon as I can find a bookstore with copies of the presently out-of-stock transcription by Emily Wilson, on which Nolan largely based his film.

From a more purely filmic angle, this Odyssey embraces the unique sensory power of the IMAX format, as the first feature film shot in that categorically epic, 70MM technology. For the full and intended experience, it pays to get thee to the nearest IMAX house (which in our case is the Regal Cinema in Camarillo). There, we bask and are happily dazzled by the bigger-is-better visuals and, not to be underplayed, sternum-rattling sound design. Bigger is indeed better in this case.

From the contextual perspective, Nolan has explained that he consulted various translations in his research, working on his own impressive and highly filmic script. But he particularly leaned into Wilson’s transmission, which is said to be more accessible, truer to the original Greek and also graced with a notable corrective feminist undercurrent. She, and Nolan by extension, shift away from the more patriarchal heroism hubris of the story, and place more focus on the powerful and wiser women characters, Penelope and the mystical Circe (Anne Hathaway and Emily Watson, both superb in their work here). 

Meanwhile, our conquering, lost and finally found hero Odysseus — played with reasonable grit and gravitas by Matt Damon — is a powerful yet flawed and vulnerable hero, not unlike the complex real-life character at the heart of Nolan’s last film, the much awarded (overly awarded?) Oppenheimer. 

Odysseus survives surviving multiple blows and misadventures on his hero’s journey back to Ithaca. Nolan’s multidimensional feat with his latest film, probably his crowning achievement so far, is a masterful juggling act of qualities and movie making savvy. He somehow manages to balance the serious themes in the classic “hero’s journey” saga, which has left its mark on literary, cinematic and other cultural modes for centuries, with due attention paid to the sensibilities of both action cinema and arthouse notions. Yes, there are epic fight scenes, and some of them needlessly protracted to satisfy the popcorn summer blockbuster crowd, and the scenes with the monstrous cyclops, Circe’s creepily gluttonous witchcraft, and the scene braving the whirlpool Charybdis harness an extra visceral power, a testament to Nolan’s scene-making talents.

But art film veneer is also in the mix. Nolan claims that one of his textural inspirations was Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev, the landmark medieval meditation easily accessible on the Criterion Channel. 

Homer’s opus has wended its way through film history in various forms and guises, directly and otherwise. As part of the Odyssey-mania overtaking the mediascape this summer, cross-references have name-checked such Homeric films as O Brother Where Art Thou, Sullivan’s Travels and the most recent explicit screen treatment of the tale, 2024’s The Return (with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche doing their best to dignify a wobbly effort). Having just recently screened that film, The Return feels pallid in comparison to Nolan’s adaptation, but then again, his stellar work succeeds in bringing Homer home in ways never quite seen before. 

Home at last, on the big (and bigger) screen. Believe the hype.