The Odyssey

 

I'm not sure if I should start this review with a joke about excessively long road trips, Homer Simpson being an ancient Greek storyteller, or the startling coincidence that the events of a tale called The Odyssey just happened to be experienced by a guy named Odysseus, so let's just skip all of that nonsense and dive in, shall we?

You have probably heard by now that Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is good, and this is a general opinion that I can now confirm. It is appropriately huge in its scope, harkening back to an era of sword-and-sandal epics that existed in Hollywood's Golden Age, and Nolan's decision to use actual locations, real boats, and SAG-AFTRA Cyclopes pays off handsomely, to say nothing of the IMAX film that it was all captured on. Christopher Nolan likes things big, a preference that served him well when dealing with nuclear explosions in Oppenheimer and is even better suited for majestic Mediterranean sailing and god-induced misadventures.

I was initially skeptical of how a good film could come from Homer's poem, not because of a lack of quality (there's a reason it is taught at high schools everywhere) but because of its episodic nature. Odysseus and his crew go to an island, something bad is on that island, Odysseus comes up with a strategy to escape, some of them do so, repeat a whole bunch of times until he finally makes it home and kills a bunch of horny freeloaders. All respect to Homer, but the story doesn't exactly adhere to the typical exposition-rising action-climax-etc. Plot progression that we are used to in the twenty-first century, and thus the pacing of the poem, at first glance seems much more suited to, say, a miniseries rather than a film. I needn't have worried, as Christopher Nolan effortlessly adapts the story into a more modern-feeling tale that shortens and streamlines some scenes, greatly expands upon others, and makes every event serve the overall narrative and flesh out the themes that are presented. The Odyssey should have been a film with lackadaisical and frustrating pacing, but by some miracle it is not.

At just shy of three hours, The Odyssey is a lot of movie. I watched it feeling a bit sleepy, and about halfway through my seven o'clock showing (it wasn't even late, what's wrong with me?) words started to float in one ear and out the other unless I made an effort to really focus, which I was not always able to do. I will have to watch it again to really absorb all of the well-written lines and thoughtful themes, because everything I did fully register points to a triumph of filmmaking. Many of the performances are career-bests, the soundtrack, while not always pleasant in a vacuum, enhances the dread, wonder, and heartbreak, and the directing is some of Nolan's best. The Odyssey truly is a wonder to behold. And now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to bed.

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.