More thoughts on Tom and The Odyssey
Tom's performance in The Odyssey was successful.
Here's the thing — I went into this film with baggage about Telemachus as a character, not just as a performance. I've read Emily Wilson's translation, and on the page, he's kind of a mess. He's whiny and petulant, grasping at manhood in the most superficial way possible — as if heroism is a task you complete rather than something you become. He's also faithful, respectful to strangers, beautiful, emboldened by Athena, and capable of real brutality in his father's name. The poem never quite decides who he is, and his arc, frankly, never earned my investment.
Tom's Telemachus — as written by Nolan and performed by Tom — is a different animal entirely. He doesn't remember his father at all; he idolizes Odysseus, but it's not blind faith, it's something closer to hope. He's smarter and more thoughtful in the movie than he is in the poem, and I appreciate that. The way he treats his mother is less petulant and some of their relationship reflects more of a realistic power struggle — two people who love each other but don't agree on what to do. He's not petulantly demanding honor here; he's earnestly trying to solve a massive problem and find his place. And that scene when he finally realizes his father is actually home is so touching, so sweet, I could watch it on a loop.
So his performance as Telemachus works for me. It's not flashy — it may not even get him an Oscar nomination — but it works. Kudos to him and to Nolan for improving on a character from the original source material while still respecting that source material. Denis Villeneuve does the same thing in Dune with Zendaya's Chani.
Here's the thing that baffles me, and I think a lot of his fans feel the same way: there's this loud but small minority insisting he can't act, and I genuinely don't know who they're talking about. Sometimes I wonder if I'm being gaslit. Setting Spider-Man aside for a second — his Spider-Man is exceptional, full stop — I can't get his performances in Cherry, The Crowded Room and Romeo and Juliet out of my head. Whether or not you liked either project, his work in them was exceptional. I saw him live four times in London in Romeo and Juliet — and yes, he's about a hundred times more beautiful in person — and his performance was captivating and completely convincing. As someone who's obsessed with performance across film, TV, and theater, the way I judge an actor is simple: how convinced am I that the person in front of me is their character, and how much do they make me feel the truth of that character viscerally? Tom was Cherry. Tom was Danny. Tom was Romeo. He disappeared into all three roles. Part of why I'm writing this is to keep myself from being gaslit by bad-faith takes from people who, I'd bet, have never actually watched the range of what he's done. He's a genuinely talented performer, and I hope I get to keep watching him work for a long time.
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