Talk of the town and the net, at least among avid moviegoers, is Christopher Nolan’s controversial take on Homer’s The Odyssey. It’s contentious because of its bold casting that’s caused outrage among Greek mythology purists.
So much has been said about this issue. I choose to stay in safe territory by excluding myself from the debates. Anyway, the character in question (Helen) is hardly a blip in this three-hour epic.
Christopher Nolan is a highly-acclaimed filmmaker, yet I had mixed feelings about him taking on The Odyssey. Would he be faithful to the poems? Is one movie enough to tell the story effectively?
I felt and still feel Peter Jackson is the perfect man for the job. What he did with Tolkien, he could have done just as brilliantly with Homer.
As for Nolan, he’s done to The Odyssey what he did to the Batman franchise. He made it darker and constantly morose. He made an anti-war movie. The metaphors are there, and it makes the film seem like an important existentialist film in the Interstellar vein, also a Nolan film.
In a way, this Odyssey also reminds me of his previous masterpiece, Oppenheimer, its title character consumed with guilt for inventing the bomb that could annihilate the world. Nolan’s Odysseus is in a similar predicament. His remorse over the pillaging of Troy, and the resulting deaths and destruction, is profound. It wasn’t the kind of epic I was expecting. My qualms were justified.
The Odyssey lacks the sweep of an epic
Nolan’s battle scenes, for instance, are adequately staged, but Peter Jackson did them better in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Even the action in Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy is superior. The Odyssey lacks the sweep of an epic. It isn’t as cinematic as I expected it to be; it feels claustrophobic most of the time.
Matt Damon as Odysseus (Courtesy of Universal Pictures)
It’s not to say The Odyssey isn’t any good. It’s actually very good. I like the story structure. The script starts with Odysseus (Matt Damon) stranded on the island of Calypso (Charlize Theron). The 10-year war in Troy is now history. He’s embarked on a journey back to Ithaca which would take another 10 years. But the rest of his troops have vanished. He can’t remember how he ended up in Calypso’s lair. She wants him to stay for good, promising him eternal youth and immortality. She gives him amnesia to erase all memories of the war, his kingdom Ithaca, and his family. Bits and pieces of what had happened are seen in flashback as Odysseus attempts to recall the past.
Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is frantic and hoping she hasn’t been widowed. She’s swarmed by thuggish suitors whose only objective is to take over Odysseus’ throne.
The film’s 10-year journey back to Ithaca is fairly faithful to the original story. The man-eating creatures, the visit to Hades, and the encounter with nefarious Circe are present and accounted for. These adventures aren’t filmed like they’re adventures. They play like the forbidding boat trip in the novella Heart of Darkness (adapted for the screen as Apocalypse Now). Nolan’s version of the voyage offers only a sense of doom, and never a sense of wonder.
We’re all familiar with the epic’s denouement, but Nolan’s exemplary storytelling methods can still keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Credit also goes to the actors who inhabit their roles well. Penelope is well written, and Anne Hathaway effectively imparts the character’s strengths and insecurities. She’s excellent in this movie.
Matt Damon can play marooned, guilt-ridden heroes backward. He’s at his best when expressing Odysseus’ torment, though he doesn’t get to make the part his own. Robert Pattinson as Penelope’s suitor Antinous is menacing and diabolical. Pattinson has lately been daring in the roles he plays. Thus, all is forgiven for his role in thrusting Twilight upon us.
Despite previous forays in superhero epics, the actors never feel larger than life (Tom Holland plays Odysseus’ son, Zendaya plays Athena). We read Homer in high school, and I imagined the men looking like Agent 007 and the women as exquisite as his Bond Girls. True enough, the Greek mythology movie Clash of the Titans briefly featured the quintessential Bond Girl: perfectly cast as Goddess Aphrodite was screen goddess Ursula Andress.
Our wonderful English teacher Manny Leviste also screened a family-friendly version of the epic titled Ulysses. It starred Kirk Douglas, who looked every inch the warrior king. Macho Kirk Douglas makes Matt Damon look like a real beggar, not a king disguised as a beggar.
Nolan, however, admirably made the protagonists more human. Penelope and Odysseus are compelling in their individual scenes. Yet, seeing them reunite we realize Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway lack chemistry. It’s Odysseus’ dog Argo who provides the film’s most emotional moment. That final scene between master and man’s best friend is genuinely heartbreaking.
The Odyssey is an accomplished work. It’s Homer getting the Christopher Nolan treatment, which isn’t bad at all. Its psychological pretentions won’t appeal to children, but it’s bound to win its share of awards. But it’s going to have a hard time winning over the purists.
