Sir Christopher Nolan’s Heroic ‘Odyssey’ Delivers an Epic Cinematic Voyage

Sir Christopher Nolan currently occupies a position in Hollywood that makes him the envy of every other director working today. While they must make compromises and strike demeaning deals to get films made — why else would the likes of Martin Scorsese and David Fincher agree to produce their work through streaming services, meaning they barely can get seen in cinemas?Mr. Nolan sails on regardless, in the company of his producer wife Dame Emma Thomas, apparently untouched by the vagaries of the ever-shifting industry. Since his 2000 breakthrough movie “Memento,” he has established a unique reputation as an auteur whose time-fracturing, elliptical narratives have nonetheless managed to connect with vast and enthusiastic audiences and ensured that he is able to do what he likes as a filmmaker.There have lately been grumblings about this, not least on social media, where Elon Musk has led a vociferous campaign about the perceived woke infelicities of “The Odyssey,” which comes down to the casting of Elliot Page as Sinon, a Greek soldier who ends up being sacrificed to bring about the ruse of the Trojan horse that destroys Troy, and Lupita Nyong’o in a dual role of Helen of Troy and her twin sister Clytemnestra. There will be those who boycott the film because they see it as pandering to sensibilities that shouldn’t exist. They are welcome to do so if they wish, but they will be missing a startlingly accomplished and thematically rich picture that establishes itself in the higher echelons of Mr. Nolan’s distinguished filmography with swashbuckling aplomb.Anne Hathaway as Penelope and Tom Holland as Telemachus in ‘The Odyssey.’ Universal PicturesAnyone who has ever studied “The Odyssey” in high school, or beyond, will know the central tenets of the narrative, which Mr. Nolan sticks to with relative fidelity. Matt Damon’s Odysseus has managed to bring the endless Trojan war to a conclusion by means of a cunning stratagem, but as he begins his laborious journey home to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), he is faced with a variety of supernatural phenomena that range from one-eyed cannibalistic giants to powerful witches, to say nothing of ship-wrecking storms that may or may not be dictated by divine providence. Meanwhile, Penelope’s hospitality is tested beyond endurance by a boorish gang of suitors, led by Robert Pattinson’s sneering Antinous, who repeatedly break what the film portentously calls “Zeus’s law,” namely that hosts should provide hospitality to guests in need: itself being tested to the limits by the journey of Ithaca’s absent king.“The Odyssey” is Mr. Nolan’s first time exploring the epic fantasy genre; it is easily forgotten how firmly rooted in reality his “Batman” trilogy was, and the apprehensive will be relieved to hear that all the expected big notes — the Cyclops, Scylla and Charybdis, the Laestrygonians and, in perhaps the single most arresting scene in the picture, Samantha Morton’s Circe — are rendered with conviction and eye-popping flair. Mr. Nolan once again opts for practical effects over computer-generated trinketry, and this approach pays off brilliantly. There is a tactility to the storms, the fire and the bloodshed that lends a properly visceral and immersive effect to the picture, especially if it is viewed in the director’s preferred IMAX format.Still, the film may be fantastical, but this is no light-hearted piece of escapism. Comparisons have been made to everything from the Ray Harryhausen pictures of the Sixties like “Jason and the Argonauts” to “Gladiator”and “Lord of the Rings,” and you can see their DNA in the picture, but in fact what “The Odyssey” functions best as is a continuation of the themes that Mr. Nolan explored to Oscar-winning effect in”Oppenheimer.” There, Cillian Murphy’s theoretical physicist was tormented by the fiery hell that he unleashed upon mankind, and here, Odysseus is wracked with guilt for the genocidal reckoning that his stratagems brought upon the people of Troy. Mr. Nolan, with typical elegance and intelligence, seeds flashbacks of what, precisely, happened because of the Trojan horse’s incursion into the city throughout the film, paying off with a fiery reckoning that is the very opposite of triumphalist catharsis.Robert Pattinson as Antinous in ‘The Odyssey.’ Universal PicturesHollywood has been struggling with getting epics right for decades, especially in the sword and sandals genre. If you want to see why, look at the difference between the first “Gladiator” film, an instant classic with conviction to spare, and its belated sequel, which seemed far more timid in its assertions. It is typical that Mr. Nolan — a director who I had pegged as excelling at depicting decidedly urban characters doing and saying horrible things to one another — has managed to approach a semi-defunct genre and has resurrected it with considerable brio.He is helped by his crack team of technical regulars — editor Jennifer Lame, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and, especially, composer Ludwig Goransson, whose doom-laden score eschews orchestras in favor of direct percussive assault — and a cast, many reuniting with him for the second or third time, who are in complete harmony with his intentions.The poster for ‘The Odyssey.’ Universal PicturesThere will be those who will read this review and many others and refuse to watch “The Odyssey” on the grounds that it’s woke, a travesty of Homer, typical Hollywood nonsense, etc. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and it would be wrong to say that this picture is a flawless masterpiece. It has a couple of strained performances — I wasn’t wholly convinced by husband-and-wife casting of Tom Holland and Zendaya, the latter appearing briefly as Odysseus’s conscience, the goddess Athena — and some of the changes made to the source material will aggravate purists and the uninitiated alike. And unusually perhaps it’s a three-hour blockbuster that is slightly too short (a necessity of the IMAX projection format); a further twenty to thirty minutes might have allowed its somewhat frantic pacing to breathe more, and given Benny Safdie’s imposing Agamemnon slightly more to do than look Darth Vader-esque in his black armor.But these are minor quibbles. There is a meme that appears online every few years that suggests “In Nolan We Trust.” On this evidence, the continued faith in the filmmaker from his millions of admirers continues to be amply justified. Let us hope that whatever he does next continues this impressive run of form.

Sir Christopher Nolan’s Heroic ‘Odyssey’ Delivers an Epic Cinematic Voyage

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