THE ODYSSEY - A LONG REVIEW FOR A LONG MOVIE
As I’ve mentioned before, I have enjoyed stories about Greek mythology all my life. So I was looking forward to seeing Christopher Nolan’s epic. To set the stage, his “Memento” and “Inception” are two of my favorite films because of their creativity and execution. But I hated “Interstellar” because I felt its “love” story was trite and it suffered from plot holes.
Where does “The Odyssey” fit in? Somewhere in between. I’m not sorry I saw it. I think it’s worth seeing. But I have no interest in seeing it again.
I didn’t feel engaged with Telemachus’ subplot. Tom Holland was miscast. He has spent too much time in the shallow end of the acting pool. After 10 years and 7 movies as Spider-Man, he still plays the naive “Gee-whiz Mr. Stark” schtick. He’s 30, and while his contemporaries have been nominated for Oscars, his biggest acting prize is an MTV award.
Then Nolan made Telemachus look useless. Although we see him training with swords earlier, there’s a scene at the end where he comes across as pathetic. While his “dad” is downstairs killing dozens of men, Telemachus fights one evil servant and barely survives. What was the point of the training scene?!?
Although Matt Damon was fine as Odysseus, his fundamental flaw is that he is largely responsible for the death of all his men. Watching his adventures played out was fun. But I didn’t feel engaged with his plight.
Nolan tried to make Odysseus a little more sympathetic than in Homer’s poem. He cut scenes of Odysseus’s hubris in revealing his name to the Cyclops (the real reason Poseidon was punishing him) and his not-so-faithful year-long romance with Circe.
Despite its $250 million budget, there were some pretty bad special effects. I read somewhere Nolan tried to avoid digital effects. But surely he could have come up with something better than his Cyclops (Bill Irwin is credited in the role). This is one of the most disappointing scenes in the film. The Cyclops moved awkwardly, his face was a joke, and he was never frightening.
I knew the Scylla at the end was a multi-tentacled monster, but I haven’t any idea what Nolan presented on screen. And even the lions and tigers on Circe’s island looked comped in and not actually on location. And in the scene at the end with Odysseus’s dog? It was supposed to be poignant, and all Nolan showed us was the twitching leg of a wooden puppet dog.
Here are a few other comments about other characters:
I didn’t have a problem with Nolan’s multicultural cast. This is a contrast with the next Lord of the Rings movie directed by Andy Serkis (Gollum), who insists he’s not doing any politically correct casting - for his movie about a fictional world. Nolan signals that his movie is for everyone.
Penelope (Anne Hathaway) - She is very good. If any actor should be nominated for acting awards, it’s Hathaway.
Antinous (Robert Pattinson) - A good villain and appropriately churlish. But at the end, Nolan made him comical when he shows his cowardice.
Helen (Lupita Nyong'o) - The rich, racist man in the world complained about her casting. I thought she was an interesting choice (and very beautiful). Nolan must have known casting her would be provocative. BUT he made two other decisions that seem to subvert her casting. First, when we see Helen for the first time, she has an ugly scar on the left side of her face. I’ve never heard of any myth referencing this. So is Nolan telling us Helen isn’t the most beautiful woman in the world? The second odd thing is that Nolan cast Nyong'o as Helen’s sister Clytemnestra, calling them identical twins. Yes, they are sisters in the myth but not identical. So one again, Nolan is saying Helen wasn’t the “most beautiful” woman in the world.
Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) - He’s depicted as massive and extraordinarily tall, but actor Benny Safdie is, I’ve read, only 5’9”. Nolan does not show his face (except obscured by his helmet), and he had very little dialogue. What was the point of casting an actor we never see?
Athena (Zendaya) - The only Greek God depicted in the movie. I’ve liked Zendaya in Challengers, the Dune films, and in Spider-Man. And she’s gorgeous on the red carpet. But I thought she was lack luster here. She didn’t come across as a “goddess” to me. She had a very glum expression throughout, which doesn’t suit her. There’s an implied explanation - that she’s not a goddess but a manifestation of Odysseus’s guilt. (I would rather she had been the goddess.)
Circe (Samatha Morton) She’s a witch known for transforming men into animals. This was one of my favorite sequences—creepy and totally unexpected.
Calypso (Charlize Theron) I liked her quite a bit in a role that’s mostly there to provide exposition.
The Middle-Earth Ending—there are various myths describing what happened to Odysseus—and in most, he continued to rule Ithaca. But for some odd reason, Nolan decided to transport Ulysses and Penelope to Middle-Earth so they could sail west to Elf-Heaven, like the ending of The Lord of the Rings. WTF?!?
My favorite movie about Greek mythology is still Jason and the Argonauts (1963) with effects by Ray Harryhausen. But a better movie about Odysseus’ return home is “The Return” (2024) starring Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus, and Juliette Binoche as Penelope.
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