NFL
By: Matt Overton
I have Sir Christopher Nolan to thank for getting me to read The Odyssey after all these years. The man of literature that he is continues to inspire his fandom to read more. I’m coming out of his gargantuan epic with the same sentiment: that we all need to read more, himself included. This bold, ambitious, and expensive picture caused a firestorm online throughout its marketing campaign. Still, lo and behold, to no one’s surprise except the haters, The Odyssey is being welcomed with the most enthusiastic reception I’ve seen all year. It’s not without its problems. Nolan’s latest foray into exploring the mythos of humanity and our relationship with time, legacy, and the curse of leadership is at times utterly gripping. However, it also incurs a surprising amount of head-scratching.
What does it mean to deconstruct the myth of Odysseus and his voyage home to Ithaca? Nolan creates a new interpretation for the 21st century that is chock-full of hefty thematic importance. The very notion of civilization, our relationship to history, and the way history interprets victory are all up for grabs. Can humanity ever truly wrestle with our innate nature that tends toward distrust and violence? Are we capable of forgiveness and the capacity to let go? Nolan’s The Odyssey grapples with all of this and more in its hefty runtime. It often anchors itself more on the ideas found in the script than the actual presentation.
Matt Damon was easily sold on being a leading man for Nolan. However, time will tell how effective his performance was. His style of acting creates some strange dissonance in the narrative. In contrast, Odysseus in the poem is this proud tactician overflowing with hubris. Damon’s version is a much more flawed and grounded human being. He is a veteran with PTSD, haunted by his actions, grappling with the consequences of his choices. It is depicted in pretty stark contrast to the source material. This is par for the course. However, this is par for the course in terms of Nolan’s protagonists over the years. It’s how he molds them to his very personal sensibilities.
Pretty much every character in this is suffering from some strange and unexpected characterization at the hands of Nolan’s script. His clunky dialogue is more noticeable when spoken in this ancient setting. It does detract from the immersion that Nolan so feverishly desires. I find myself struggling to digest The Odyssey because I’m at odds with the strange changes to the characters. However, I thoroughly enjoy the film’s main idea concerning Zeus’ Law.
The notion that the Trojan Horse led to the collapse of the Bronze Age is a fascinating thought experiment. It’s one I never thought would be explored in a $250 million blockbuster. The whole film builds to this emotional exchange between Odysseus and Penelope. Here, Nolan’s thesis is fully explained to the audience. The culmination of three hours results in some significant emotional highs, in which all of the buildup receives a poignant payoff, but again some of the artistic decisions to make it there are questionable.
This turned out to be one of those rare instances where reading the book beforehand actually soured my experience watching the film. Nolan’s sensibilities are a genre all to themselves, and he applies his cold, calculating cinema to this 3,000-year-old poem to varying degrees of effectiveness. His need to apply modern morality to this ancient story leads to some strange and conflicting results. I guess I’m just surprised at how loose an adaptation this turned out to be. Nolan assuredly captures the epic scale that The Odyssey requires, but along the way decided to take this story in an entirely different direction. Homer might be proud of this, and I have seen various scholars and classicists praise the film for its fresh insight.
The Odyssey is a surprisingly mixed bag. I never found myself truly gripped by any of the performances, except for Pattinson because he plays a sniveling coward so damn well. I can see the vision for Damon’s leading man turn and what his pedigree brings to the film’s fold. However, Holland is out of place, Hathaway doesn’t receive any significant scenes, and no other character gets more than five minutes of screen time. John Leguizamo is the standout actor. Among so many other huge names, he is the true ringer of this cast and delivers a shockingly touching and grounded performance.
The images are absolutely gorgeous. Every frame offers some new flair or beautiful sight. The editing is very on-brand for Nolan, and his non-linear structure maintains explosive propulsion. As many gripes as I have with the final product, I will probably see this many more times because there’s so much to digest, interpret, and think about that is so enticing. More than any other filmmaker, Nolan’s films always get my brain firing on every level, and for that he is the master.
