The Odyssey: Film review

Halfway through a screening of The Odyssey, at the Regal cinema in Times Square, New York, I had to step out of the cinema for 15 minutes to take a remote advocates meeting, for a hearing I’m doing next week, back in London. 

Normally, I’d be annoyed at this intrusion into my social life and especially a holiday abroad. But here it was a welcome relief. 

After the meeting finished, I dawdled in the lobby area. I noticed a picture of Audrey Hepburn at the entrance to the ladies restroom and one of James Dean at the entrance to the men’s. I took photos of both. It was a way to stay out of the screening a little longer. The thought of returning to the second half of the movie was not an enticing one. However, I did return and sat it out.

I wanted to love this film. Homer’s The Odyssey directed by Christopher Nolan. On paper it seemed a dream pairing. Add to that an impressive cast and this was a sure fire winner. And for many it is. The film has opened big at the box office. Critics have raved about it. And my own cinema companions, one of whom is an academy voter, liked it greatly. 

Sadly, for me, it was three hours I could have spent shopping on 5th Avenue or at a Broadway show.

The problem was a fundamental one: At no point in the film did I feel I was transported to ancient Greece. This meant I just couldn’t immerse myself in the journey of Odysseus and his crewmen as they battled their way through monsters, sirens and angry Gods in a bid to return home to the kingdom of Ithaca. I found the American accents and modern language jarring. The dialogue is clunky and, at times, downright risible. The attempts at profundity fall flat and there are no memorable lines. For a big budget film the armour and the costumes, too, look rather cheap.

Obviously, there is a huge amount of story and numerous characters to cram into three hours and this means much is left out, which makes a cohesive narrative more challenging. It also makes the film episodic. No sooner have you begun to understand and settle into one set of circumstances, then you’re thrust into another, leaving little space for emotional investment in any. Invariably, some episodes work better than others and this makes for a shaky, fragmented journey.

Surprisingly, too, this is one of the few fantasy adventure epics where in the ‘big’ scenes, I could envision the cameras around the set. Turbulent mediterranean sea suffering the wrath of Poseidon? All I could think of was a massive tank of water on some studio lot, Nolan’s cameras ranged around it and some machine pumping out the ‘storm’ while a miniature ship was flung about. It’s like catching sight of the shadow of the harness helping Superman to fly. It destroys the magic. In tone and colour too, the film is muted, and low-key. This is a contemplative Odyssey, it all screams, not just spectacle. Fine, but it makes for little excitement.

Another fundamental difficulty, for me, was that at no point did I believe many of the miscast actors and actresses were their respective characters. 

Matt Damon (Odysseus) is generally a solid, dependable and underrated actor. He can move easily between complex supporting roles and big lead roles that require him to carry a film. However, for me, here, he simply was not believable as an heroic warrior or a great leader of men. It isn’t just that his face is too modern, his look too all American for a Greek hero – there’s no attempt to make this film about Greeks. It’s that the bellyaching script neuters him totally. This is an Odysseus with what’s been described as post-traumatic stress disorder and racked with guilt. His heroic exploits are not something to be celebrated. As such, this becomes yet another film in which a traditional male hero is diminished, depicted as tired, weak and flawed, his achievements psycho analysed through a modern lens. This take was interesting for a nanosecond but is now just tiresome. Gladiator was probably the last great epic in which the male lead was allowed to be both heroic and human without either compromising the other. 

As with other Nolan films, there are numerous star studded cameos and supporting roles but there is little time to invest in any of them. Excellent actors like Robert Pattinson are given little to do, their motivations quickly alluded to and then not developed.

Zendaya briefly pops up a couple of times. Her plain white head covering making her look more like a maid than a goddess. Mia Goth has a blink and you’ll miss her role as an actual maid to Penelope, the wife of Odysseus. By contrast, Himesh Patel and John Leguizamo are given too much screen-time, their roles as Eurylochus and Eumaeus are annoying.

Samantha Morton is a stand out support as Circe in a sequence which is not for the faint hearted. 

Anne Hathaway is also good as Penelope. Even from the early stills, before the film’s release, she was one of the few who looked believable in her role and she stamps her authority on it in her scenes. Her rebuke to her son, Telemachus (Tom Holland) about her role in keeping the throne in the absence of Odysseus is one of the few high points of the dialogue in the film.

Much of the controversy before the film’s release focused on Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o being cast as the ‘white armed, golden haired’ Helen of Troy whose legendary beauty launched a thousand ships. Nyong’o also plays Helen’s twin sister, Clytemnestra. The casting was widely mocked, leading to Nolan declaring  that Lupita was the obvious choice because of her strength, poise and bearing. 

As it is, both roles are another case of blink and you’ll miss them. Lupita brings nothing special to either role and so both the casting and Nolan’s comments about his choice seem pointless. Not to mention that the film actually features a white armed, golden haired legendary beauty Charlize Theron as Calypso. Theron has little to do in her role but along with Hathaway and Morton elevates every scene she is in.

Those who love the film say that it is even more rewarding on multiple viewings. Perhaps. I confess I struggled to get through one viewing. Who knows, I may yet grow to like it if I see it again. But for now, I’d rather rewatch Troy which was not that great but was more enjoyable or, better still, the brilliant Jason and the Argonauts.

However, go see The Odyssey and decide for yourself. Unlike me, you might love it.