Poster Description: The poster is dark, lit up by the orange glow of fire and ash. It
illuminates the colossal shape of a wooden horse. Odysseus (Matt Damon) stands
below, in full armour and a helmet with a red comb on top. He holds a sword,
and his mouth is open in a battle roar.
When the announcement that Christopher Nolan would direct
Homer’s The Odyssey happened in 2024, I heard it without surprise, but
with a lot of excitement. Ignoring his recurring habit of giving his main hero
a dead wife for plot motivation (see Memento, Inception, and, to
some extent, Batman Begins), Nolan knows how to make an epic film well
and truly EPIC.
The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus (Matt Damon, Good
Will Hunting) and what happened to him and his men during the ten years
after the Trojan War. Simultaneously, his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway, The
Devil Wears Prada 2) endures the company of rowdy suitors drinking all her
food and wine. It’s been twenty years since she saw her husband, and their son,
Telemachus (Tom Holland, Spider-Man: Brand New Day), sets out to find
out whether his father is still alive.
I went into The Odyssey with some knowledge of the
story; The Simpsons had introduced me to it as a child, and my niece
worked behind the scenes in an incredible puppet show during her last year in
primary school. With all that said, Nolan’s version is somewhat out of order,
as we follow Odysseus’s mental journey to remembering why he is marooned on an
island with no one but Charlize Theron for company. Oh, no, right? Just awful.
Anyway, Damon grounds the fantastical aspects of the film with his quiet,
sombre performance; he debates with the goddess Athena (Zendaya, Dune: Part
II) about his decisions to go against so-called signs and omens. Likewise,
I found his conversations with Odysseus’s wife intimate and understated, as
Hathaway lies across his back in bed, lit only by firelight. Nevertheless,
Damon knows when to release these emotional restraints when the moment calls
for it, notably when Odysseus – ever selfless and honourable – forgoes the wax
in his ears against the sirens’ song. The whole sequence is a spine-chilling
masterclass in “show, don’t tell.”
Such scenes are imprinted on my brain thanks to Ludwig
Göransson’s score. His choice to use traditional Greek instruments suits
Nolan’s vision for practicality; I especially liked the motif used in
Odysseus’s flashbacks to Troy, with a beat that sounds like chains running
along metal bars. It’s simple, yet chilling.
Indeed, Nolan’s preference for practical effects over CGI
works beautifully well here. I’ll try to keep my excitement at bay to avoid too
many spoilers, but some of the solutions are so obvious, they’re incredible.
Picking the right time of night to create a spooky atmosphere. Those storms at
sea encountered by Odysseus and his men? Real actors being thrown about in a
real boat on a real ocean. Odysseus’s men getting tricked? Camera trickery and
animatronics, all made more alarming by Samantha Morton’s performance; she’ll
likely get overshadowed by other, more prominent characters within the film
when it comes to award nominations, but she’s a winner in my eyes. Likewise,
Anne Hathaway’s seething interpretation of Penelope; tied down by patriarchal
tradition and expectation, her frustration still feels current to today’s
audience.
My reason for not giving The Odyssey five stars out
of five is a bit nit-picky. Tom Holland plays an earnest, baby-faced
Telemachus, but the decision to have him consistently address Penelope as
“Mom”, rather than “Mother”, took me out of the film’s tone all the same.
Equally, though Robert Pattinson positively revels in his role as sneaky
Antinous, some of his dialogue slips into a more idiosyncratic style better
suited to the 21st century. But, hey, this IS a story featuring a Cyclops and
(rather unconvincing) sea monsters, so it’s hardly historically accurate.
Naysayers against casting Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy need to remember
that.
There is so much more I could say about The Odyssey,
but at the risk of giving too much away, I shall stop here. While it isn’t
entirely accurate to Homer’s original work, and the script forgets where it’s
supposed to be set, it still captures so much of the legend’s scope that I
could ignore that quite happily. The cast bristles with talent, the score is
another triumph in Ludwig Göransson’s career, and Christopher Nolan’s
dedication to using practical effects is bloody remarkable. Go and see The
Odyssey at once!
My
Rating: 4.5 STARS
OUT OF 5
My
Sources:
The
Odyssey poster – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Odyssey_%282026_film%29
When was it
announced that Christopher Nolan would be the director? - https://deadline.com/2024/12/christopher-nolan-the-odyssey-confirmed-directors-new-film-universal-1236241340/
How did Göransson
create the score? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhY1DRTY3A&pp=ygUbYW1hbmRhIHRoZSBqZWRpIHRoZSBvZHlzc2V5
Does Travis Scott play “The Bard?” Yup - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33764258/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cst_sm
Comments
Post a Comment