Review: “The Odyssey” is Signature Christopher Nolan (Both Good and Bad)

By Ben Miller

13 feature films into his career, director Christopher Nolan has developed a string of touchstones for his films. You can expect an all-star cast, massive practical set pieces, underdeveloped women, stunning visuals, and clunky dialogue. With his new film The Odyssey, Nolan again delivers on everything you come to expect from a Nolan movie.

This time, Nolan (a well-documented child of cinema history), decides to take his chances with a sword and sandals epic in the vein of Ben-Hur or Quo Vadis. While the filmmaker might not have the reverence for the genre, he dives headfirst into the craft and scope necessary to make a film of this magnitude. When this film is big, bold, and a little silly, that’s where everything excels. It’s when things get more intimate that the film loses its way...

If you need a modern cinematic dramatization of the Battle of Troy, complete with the chaos and destruction, I can’t imagine anyone better than Nolan to get the job done. Do you need to have a 50-foot cyclops terrorizing Greek soldiers? He’s your man. How about depicting period-accurate wooden longships being tossed around an angry sea? Nolan is the go-to. As good as he is at all those big, difficult set-pieces, the in-between of those scenes features characters sitting and talking with each other, which is not what the filmmaker does well.

Nolan’s dialogue is often clunky, heavy on exposition, and overly reliant on one-on-one conversation. This is not a film where words should be so heavy to understand the film. The Odyssey poem is well-traveled in high school literature classes, as well as a bevy of other adaptations. While this film doesn’t follow Homer’s poem line for line, it’s almost as if Nolan forgot about the dialogue and was too focused on the big set-pieces. As a result, the big things get all the attention, but the dialogue and smaller scenes fall by the wayside. It also doesn’t help that Nolan continues to poorly depict hand-to-hand combat.

The film is filled with some of the most talented and charismatic actors, but they can only do so much with what they are asked to recite. What’s the point of casting someone like Lupita Nyong’o or Charlize Theron and give them next to nothing to do? Poor Tom Holland gets his most prominent non-Spider-Man role in years, and he gets little to do other than brood or be confused. Zendaya, one of the most dynamic young actresses of her generation, quietly shows up on occasion to talk to the main character. Stunt casting only makes sense if you give the actors something to do.

This doesn’t extend to everyone. Damon, obviously has a full characterization as Odysseus. While his presence is the most important aspect of his performance, his physicality also plays a role. That is never in question. Anne Hathaway is relegated to behind a screen for the majority of the film, but gets a few standout scenes to show just how talented of a performer she is. Hathaway makes out better than any other actor in the ensemble.

Other actors do a nice job in smaller roles, most notably Samantha Morton as the witchy Circe. John Leguizamo gets the featured supporting role as Eumaeus, Odysseus’s faithful servant. Bill Irwin stands in as the aforementioned cyclops Polyphemus, while Himesh Patel supports Odysseus throughout as his second-in-command Eurylochus. Elliot Page also has a few standout scenes as Sinon, a plot-important character who echoes throughout the film.

The stunt casting elsewhere is relatively pointless. Corey Hawkins, Mia Goth, Logan Marshall-Green, Jovan Adepo, Ryan Hurst, Jon Bernthal, and Will Yun Lee show up for quick spurts of pointlessness. Pattinson, the main antagonist, also does very little. For an actor who is willing to do whatever the film asks of him to do, the film has nothing for his characterization to even make him interesting. Smarter casting would have done this film a great service.

But, all that barely matters when you have 12-foot-tall men slaughtering Greeks. Who needs a good script when you can have a memorable visit to the underworld and see the dead? When you have horror elements of men turning into pigs or a cyclops chomping off soldier’s heads, who cares if there is too much exposition? The film never feels as long as it’s nearly three-hour length.

The Odyssey is classic Christopher Nolan. While it might feature some of his most visually captivating work, it also contains his usual shortcomings. Nonetheless, I was consistently entertained. B

Oscar Chances: Above-the-line nominations like Best Picture and Director will definitely come into play as long as the film makes money.  I would be dubious of any acting nominations unless they push hard for Hathaway or Morton.  Below the line, Production Design, Visual Effects, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound, Costume Design, Casting, and Original Score could be expected.  

Comments

[DK]

“Zendaya, one of the most dynamic young actresses of her generation”

This feels like an incantation people speak to make it true. I was impressed with her in Challengers but she is often quite bad, I really don’t understand what people project onto her.