I experienced that sensation again this past week with Christoper Nolan’s The Odyssey. It felt like somehow Mr Nolan had been able to transport me back to Ancient Greece and, as I sat there mesmerised for three hours, I didn’t hear crisp packets crinkle or the chewing of popcorn. No, I was enthralled by a film that has become an instant masterpiece for me.
Based on the classic tale created by Homer in either the 7th or 8th century BCE, The Odyssey tells the tale of Telemachus (Tom Holland – Spider-Man: Far From Home) and his father Odysseus (Matt Damon – The Martian) in the period after the Trojan War.
News of Odysseus’s victory at Troy has filtered back home to Greece first through word-of-mouth and then as veterans of the war return home. Now over two decades later the victory has become legend in song yet Odysseus has not returned home to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway – The Devil Wears Prada) and son. While the rest of the Empire has started to believe the King is dead Penelope and Telemachus still believe he is alive.
Now the Palace is filled with suitors, such as Antinous (Robert Pattinson – Twilight), who plan on capitalising on the King’s death and seducing Penelope in order to take the throne. However, Telemachus and loyal servant Eumaeus (John Leguizamo – Moulin Rouge) are having none of that. They try to protect Penelope as much as they can but everybody knows there are plots to kill them both to get them out of the way.
Meanwhile, Odysseus is still alive but is unknowingly trapped on an island with the beautiful Calypso (Charlize Theron – Mad Max: Fury Road) who is keeping him there. His mind plays tricks on him with visions of the Goddess Athena (Zendaya – The Greatest Showman) but soon he also starts to remember the horrors of the war and his journey alongside friends such as Eurylochus (Himesh Patel – Tenet).
Stunning acting
As you expect with the plot at hand and the fact that this is a Christopher Nolan (Inception) film, The Odyssey is epic in nature but there is something else special about this film. The way it is shot totally engulfs you and transports you to another time and place. So visual and realistic are the images created by Nolan and his cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar) it feels like you can taste and smell the sulphur as the characters walk across the volcanic landscape. This film has the power to make you believe that you are not watching a movie it makes you feel like you are part of.
The fear of going into a movie like The Odyssey is that when you know it has a three hour run time you can start to worry about whether you will start to feel the length or not – with The Odyssey I actually felt in a way that it wasn’t long enough. It almost felt that the sequences with the Cyclops and also with the witch, the sea creature and sirens didn’t last long enough, but realistically the only way Nolan could have fixed that was perhaps turn this into a trilogy of films or even a television series. The suspense was there but I can only imagine what it would have felt like if they had been drawn out even more.
On the flipside of that argument is also the fact that Nolan as a filmmaker hasn’t allowed himself to be distracted by things like monsters and Gods and, instead of always capatalising on the action sequences that those things can bring, he focuses on the characters themselves. This is a story of a son desperate to protect his mother despite knowing he is not the all powerful warrior his father was and of a man desperate to remain loyal to his faith and return to his family.
Because the screenplay has been written with such strong characterisation as a focus the result is some stunning acting performances. Matt Damon is in award-winning form playing Odysseus. He lets the character become him and you soon forget that it is even Damon playing the role. Likewise we see also see a different side to Tom Holland as the young actor takes a big step in his career here while credit must also be given to Himesh Patel who steals every scene that he is in.
Some may wish that The Odyssey had a little more action but personally I loved the fact that it focussed more on the characters themselves and deep themes revolving around war and power and had it can corrupt even the most faithful of men and women. There is something special about The Odyssey that left me yearning despite the fact I also knew that I had just watched another Nolan film that can only be called a masterpiece.
The Odyssey is currently screening in Phuket and is rated 15+
5/5 Stars
David Griffiths has been working as a film journalist for over 25 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. He currently hosts a film podcast called The Popcorn Conspiracy. He is also a Rotten Tomatoes accredited reviewer and is an alternate judge for the Golden Globes Awards. You can follow him at Facebook: SubcultureEntertainmentAus.