The Odyssey review: Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon deliver an extraordinary feat of epic filmmaking

Homer’s Odyssey is such a sprawling tale with so many fantastical elements, that few have ever attempted it.

But for the ambitious and resourced filmmaker, the rewards are great, if they can balance the story’s many demands.

Christopher Nolan could not have made The Odyssey earlier in his career, he needed to have traversed his own filmmaking journey, conquered those artistic challenges, and learnt everything he did on every previous work to make it to this point.

The Odyssey is an incredible feat of filmmaking, a marvellous achievement in the craft of his chosen profession, and especially the kind of movies he makes - technically skilful spectacles that reinforces for the audience that the experience of watching great cinema can never be replicated in another form or by lines of code.

There are few who wouldn’t have some familiarity with Homer’s epic story of Odysseus (Matt Damon), the clever king of Ithaca who dreamt up the famed Trojan Horse tactic which finally ended a 10-year war.

Odysseus then spent another 10 years trying to get home to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), a journey that is literally blown off course after he angers the gods and leaves him facing with a cyclops, sea monsters, sirens, a witch, giants, unforgiving storms, and Calypso the nymph.

On Ithaca, Penelope tries to fend off the many unworthy suitors who now darken her home as they try to claim her hand and therefore the throne. She is still holding out for Odysseus, even though he’s been gone almost two decades, while Telemachus is convinced his father must still be alive.

The many elements of this story is almost impossible to adapt for the screen, and even at almost three hours long, some segments still feels fleeting and short-changed.

So, there is a delicate balance of watching these incredible actors such as Charlize Theron as Calypso, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen and Clytemnestra, Zendaya as Athena, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus, Samantha Morton as Circe, and Elliot Page as Sinon, and feeling as if you didn’t get enough of them.

But that’s the demand of the story, it has to keep moving, and the limited moments you do have are memorable. Morton’s Circe, in particular, leaves an enduring impression, as not a villain but a complex figure who had resonant reasons for her sorcery.

Damon is a fantastic choice as Odysseus, bringing with him decades of goodwill from his industry stature and previous roles, as someone who could embody the gravitas of a complicated figure who is held in such regard by others, admired for his tenacity, intellect and decency, but who struggles with doubt as he considers his personal culpability.

Nolan’s The Odyssey may be based on one of the great classics of western literature, but he has moulded it to be a modern parable about our times.

Odysseus is frequently confronted with the possibility that his actions have caused this cursed journey, and that he is responsible for the deaths of not just his crew but also countless more during the Trojan War.

Throughout the film, Nolan, who has never been a subtle storyteller, points to this idea of a broken compact between man and the gods. It’s a breakdown in civility, and a violation of Zeus’s law in which hospitality must be extended to all.

The suitors in Ithaca despoil Penelope’s generosity, behaving like a pack of goons who torment Telemachus and mock the vulnerable. There is no kindness to be found among them, especially the slithery Antinous (Robert Pattinson).

The Odyssey, then, could be read as Nolan’s urgent plea for a repairing of our own fractured social contract as rage, hatred and division tear through communities around the world. A masterfully staged flashback sequence in Troy makes it quite clear that Nolan sees a parallel between that conflict and its effects, and our present moment.

That set-piece is just but one of many impressive sequences in The Odyssey. One which depicts Odysseus and his soldiers inside the Trojan Horse is jaw-dropping, provoking questions of “how the hell did they do that?” while the interacting with the cyclops or battling the brutal seas evoke similar awe.

This is an incredibly well-made film that pulls together filmmakers with great talent, and everything you see on the screen is perfectly complemented by Ludwig Goransson’s pulsing score, which, at its strongest moments, is doing half the work in building tension.

But, and there is often a “but” with Nolan, there is something academic about The Odyssey. Everything is a little too polished, and the one thing that is missing is that messy, often indefinable thing we call emotions.

Nolan can be a cold filmmaker, which isn’t helped by his screenplays, often his weak point, and here some of the dialogue can be clunky. The Odyssey, for all of its extraordinary filmmaking accomplishments, just doesn’t hit you in the feels in a way that matches its technical prowess.

It’s what stops it from being a perfect film. It is, however, still a great one that is definitely worthy of your time. Don’t be an idiot, obviously it has to be seen in a cinema.

Rating: 4/5

The Odyssey is in cinemas