Starring: Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Rated: R
Running Time: 173 minutes
Universal Pictures
Our Score: 4.5 out of 5 Stars
About 3,000 years ago, somebody who might have been named Homer wrote a couple of long poems called The Iliad and The Odyssey.
A lot of of us were forced to read them when we were kids, and many of us felt the only reason we were doing it was because the texts were so damn old. Thankfully Christopher Nolan’s new film adaption may be reverent, but it isn’t carved in stone.
Nolan delivers the requisite spectacle. The land and seascapes captured by cinematographer Hoyle van Hoytema (who has shot Nolan’s last few movies) are suitably breathtaking whether you’re watching them in an IMAX auditorium or in 70MM. The cyclops looks big and terrifyingly real.
Nolan’s aversion to computer generated images pays off because the battles seem immersive and suitably dangerous. Bloodshed looks as if it’s really occurring. Magic spells look as if they are happening in real-time.
More importantly, Nolan manages to make familiar characters seem less, oh, iconic. Unlike Elon Musk and the basement dwelling crybabies who have complained about a film that they haven’t seen, I have also had the additional pleasure of having read the book, which Nolan has actually followed to a fair amount of fidelity.
For those idiots who complained about the “authenticity” of casting of gorgeous Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, I wonder if these were the same folks who weren’t bothered that the king of Sparta spoke with a thick Scottish accent in 300. That issue cost me no sleep, either.
Back to the film, I’m currently reviewing.
What is intriguing is that Nolan gives the established characters motives that might not have been obvious in the original text. Matt Damon is certainly not Greek, but Homer describes Odysseus as crafty, and the actor can convey the Ithacan king’s quick thinking effortlessly. Even his missteps seem logical.
He also carries the look of someone who carries the weight have having been involved in disgraced campaigns. He may have succeed in figuring out how to crack the seemingly endless siege of Troy, but sacrificing countless men, time and resources for a domestic matter involving the kings of Sparta and Mycenae has been hardly worth it.
It’s no wonder he doesn’t want to follow Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) and Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) back home. Along the way, he gets 10 years worth of detours that put Ithaca and its throne in danger.
Those who’ve had a little Greek mythology know what he’s about to encounter. Nolan makes the obstacles more intriguing than what you might have slept through in class.
He and his men encounter a hostess named Circe (Samantha Morton), whose initial hospitality comes with a steep price. Nolan and Morton do something audacious by making her sympathetic. Past visitors may not have had great intentions, and Odysseus shows he can get out of messes with more than clever lies and swordplay.
The female characters seem a tad more developed in this adaptation, which is helpful because Odysseus’ wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is so essential to the plot. She has to juggle an army of suitors who want the kingdom and her hand. None seem to be terribly good husbands or capable leaders. Watching her string along the not so clever pretenders shows she’s as sharp as her wandering husband.
Her son Telemachus (Tom Holland) might be an adult, but he’s not quite ready to take his dad’s job because he has trouble standing up to the especially sleazy suitor Antinous (a delightfully repellent Robert Pattinson).
Homer goes to flashbacks, so it’s easy to see why Nolan would, too. In this case they work because it gives the Battle of Troy more impact and helps make Odysseus’ long strange, trip seem more plausible.
Sometimes, Nolan’s touch can seem clinical, but when a story is naturally full of divine intervention and human frailty, it makes the wonder of the long, long journey seem less like a myth and more like a statement of fact.