Odysseus, king of Ithaca, embarks on a perilous journey to return home after the Trojan War.
(C) Letterboxd (via Universal)
It’s such an honor to live at the same era as Christopher Nolan. Here’s a director of big-scale movies who stays in control of the audience and what he wants to tell. He made The Odyssey unmistakably his own: themes of memory and identity are all present here. They were meant to be after all.
That’s particularly crucial here given that adapting The Odyssey was never going to be easy. Aside from some obvious (and distracting) editing choices and the occasionally inaudible dialogue (unsurprising by now), the film triumphs in capturing both the scale and the modern resonance of the epic.
By now, everyone is aware Nolan and co. can deliver massive, thrilling set pieces meant for the biggest screens possible. At the same time, one shouldn’t overlook the treatment of women in The Odyssey, especially considering how some of them were originally portrayed. Here, Nolan gives them a voice of reason, and the likes of Anne Hathaway and Samantha Morton make these iconic characters shine even brighter. They’re not simply driven by madness or emotion without purpose. A low benchmark? Maybe. But I’ll take it for now.
Elevating the film even further are its final sequences. Everything builds toward something truly great. You’ll cheer, cry, and feel exhilarated. It’s as if you don’t know how it’ll all unfold, even though you already do. Everything just clicks.
The Odyssey is a true cinematic achievement. It’s grand yet intimate. Propulsive yet somehow melancholic. They actually did it. 4/5
