"THE ODYSSEY" - REVIEW

Writer/director Christopher Nolan once said, “every film I do, I have to believe that I'm making the best film that's ever been made.”

Many of his films have been just that.

His ambitious works are often a blend of the epic sweep of David Lean, the cold calculation and innovation of Stanley Kubrick, and the bombastic spectacle—and occasional clutter—of Michael Bay. (I often joke that Nolan is “the thinking man’s Michael Bay.”). A master of the resources at his disposal, whether they are meager—his 1999 debut FOLLOWING reportedly cost $6,000—or gargantuan, Nolan’s films are practically-executed mind-benders that explore concepts of memory, fractured psyches and the passage of time while also delivering the genre goods: noir thrillers (his 2000 breakout MEMENTO and 2002’s INSOMNIA), crime epics (THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY), sci-fi/action (2010’s INCEPTION, 2014’s INTERSTELLAR and 2020’s TENET), and war (2017’s DUNKIRK). He even made a kooky film about two rival magicians in 2006 called THE PRESTIGE (which is his rare one-and-done for me personally). Nolan’s films are often ensemble pieces that put movie stars through the paces, telling big stories on increasingly massive scales with practical effects and very little computer-generated imagery.

Across his 13 feature films, it is safe to say that Nolan, like Kubrick (who, incidentally, also made 13 feature films in his lifetime) is now only in competition with—and can only be compared to—himself. He is now a genre all his own.

All that being said, nothing, and I mean nothing, will prepare you for his follow-up to his 2023 Academy Award-winning biopic OPPENHEIMER; for his $250 million adaptation of Homer’s 3,000-year-old poem, which Nolan has called in the marketing “the greatest of stories.”

THE ODYSSEY is harrowing and deeply human. Adapting primarily from Emily Wilson’s translation which favors contemporary language—get over it: it’s there, it’s fine and you’ll get used to it—Nolan’s film is massive, meditative and furious, but more simply (and not hyperbolically) put, one of the very best films that’s ever been made.

Odysseus (our favorite everyman Matt Damon) rules Ithaca with the charisma, confidence, and cockiness of the biblical King David (albeit a monogamous King David). He fiercely loves Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and they have an infant son Telemachus (who grows up to be Tom Holland, wonderful in a perfect bridge role from boy to man) when he is called back to war. For those familiar, what follows is a 20 year journey back home, and all the things that keep Odysseus from ever getting back: endless war, supernatural deception and hubristic self-deception, and ultimately shame. Much of this is supposedly brought on by the gods (which could be argued away as severe weather events), and just as much impulsively brought on by himself as he grinds down his own hope as well as the morale of the men entrusted to his care when that impulsivity decreases their numbers with each new adventure. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Penelope weaves a death shroud that she keeps unraveling and re-weaving while countless suitors feast on nightly banquets in the dark halls of Ithaca, waiting for Penelope to give up her dream of her beloved’s return, and to choose a new husband and king. Someone like perhaps the conniving Antinous (Robert Pattinson, an absolute riot who veers between Shakespearean gravitas and a cowering weinie) or the crude Polybus (Corey Hawkins), among many others. All the while, Telemachus holds his own, in spite of the suitors’—and his own mother’s—estimation of him, just as he holds out hope for a reunion with a hero father he has never met.

Nolan casts his film to perfection: we get inspired, exquisite newcomers to the Nolanverse in plum roles such as Lupita Nyong’o (Clytemnestra and Helen of Troy), Charlize Theron (Calypso), Zendaya (Athena), Jon Bernthal (Menelaus), Mia Goth (Melantho) and especially John Leguizamo (Eumaeus) and the always welcome, often under-utilized Samantha Morton (Circe). In addition to Damon, Hathaway, and Pattinson, Nolan also reunites with TENET’s Himesh Patel (Eurylochus, Odysseus’s second-in-command), OPPENHEIMER’s Benny Safdie (Agamemnon), INTERSTELLAR’s Bill Irwin (in a menacing yet tender portrayal as the cyclops Polyphemus), and most excitingly, INCEPTION’s Elliot Page (Sinon) as a haunted young soldier.

Despite Nolan utilizing IMAX technology on most of his films since THE DARK KNIGHT, THE ODYSSEY holds the distinction of being the first film to ever entirely employ the use of IMAX film cameras. What he and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema achieve here in terms of the spectacle is expected; what they do in terms of the smaller human moments—which they started to do on OPPENHEIMER and has been a long-held dream of Nolan’s—is nothing short of miraculous. The frame more often than not holds its characters front and center, immersing us, shocking us, submerging us into their plight and into their wounded souls. The frame is so big and the image quality so superior that there is nowhere for the actors to hide, and so they don’t: in the words of Odysseus, they “bring it all.” Not only that, but in spite of the cameras weighing over 300 pounds, they are fleet of foot, moving as if handheld: always grounded, always with the film’s characters. It is the most intimate use of IMAX yet. (This production necessitated the creation of a new style of IMAX camera known as the Keighley Camera, named for the late David Keighley, an IMAX executive to whom this film is dedicated.)

Like a pair of Zeuses, Nolan and his superstar producer wife Emma Thomas summon their other Olympians: costume designer Ellen Mirojnick’s stark and severe leather and metal as well as lush fabrics that pop; production designer Ruth De Jong’s seamless blending of beautiful stage work and stunning practical locations in far off places such as Italy, Iceland, Morocco, Scotland, and Greece; Jennifer Lame’s incredible editing, both doing Nolan‘s favorite thing of crosscutting between multiple timelines, as well as drumming up genuine tension and suspense; and composer Ludwig Göransson’s innovative score that is both introspective and charged. Lastly, this is Nolan’s first foray into out-and-out fantasy, and his rendering of things fantastical is jaw-dropping. The fact that very little CGI was used still has me gobsmacked, considering what they put on screen.

Both thematically and literally, there is a lot of movie to grapple with here. It is almost 3 hours long, and while most Nolan movies fly by in spite of their length, THE ODYSSEY by contrast feels like 20 years. That’s not a knock against it: it’s a brilliant approach to further steep you in Odysseus’ longing to get home. So many movies nowadays have narrative structures that are so easy to mark time by, but this one, in part due to its picaresque nature, is a movie you get completely lost in, like the characters do, where the middle of their journey feels arduous and endless because we can’t feel where the middle is. Despite the long sit, the film was always engaging, always moving, always giving us something new and something more than we thought possible, than we ever dare dream to expect from a trip to the movies. It all builds up to an intense and gratifying final hour, with wall-to-wall action that actually had me sweating profusely in a well-air-conditioned movie theater.

Nolan is a filmmaker who often reaches the top of Olympus on every film, and somehow manages to top himself on the next one. This is Nolan at the peak of his powers. THE ODYSSEY is a feat of sheer will, with every frame an impossible painting, filming in impossible places, doing impossible things. It is grandiose period epic as nail-biting thrill ride. It is action, it is fantasy, it is horror. It is reverent and fresh, and it is real. Nolan tells stories that demand and reward upon multiple viewings, so see it on the biggest screen you can, or in as many formats as you can (IMAX, IMAX 70mm, 70mm, Dolby Cinema, and standard) if they are available to you.

This, my friends, is how you knock the dust off of a classic in a way that also honors it. The storytelling of Homer has endured for a reason, and Nolan‘s ability to make it tactile and deeply felt for modern audiences is pure gift from the ever-benevolent cinema gods.

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Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: www.mnfca.com