Directed By Christopher Nolan

Starring – Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway

The Plot – After the Trojan War, Odysseus (Damon) faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Calypso (Charlize Theron) along the way.

Rated R for violence and some adult language

The Odyssey | Official New Trailer

POSITIVES

In terms of sprawling scope and epic scale, Christopher Nolan is in a league of his own, specifically in the documented history of grounding these bigger than life narratives with accessible themes and underlining emotionality to hook an endeared audience, and considering Homer’s The Odyssey is among the most cherished pieces of literature of all-time, Nolan’s fearlessness and precision is on point towards delivering another enthrallingly immersive experience to add to his already impressive laundry list of remarkable films. Among the many immensely vital decisions that Nolan supplants to his direction, the need for tangibility towards practicality is most apparent in the variety of set pieces and background designs that make up such a massive undertaking, where the need for special effects maintains minimization, and on-site photography receives maximization, in order to give this world such a lived-in brand of authenticity to its documentation that stretches as far and wide as the IMAX cameras used during photography could vividly articulate. Considering it was just a week ago where Disney’s live-action Moana remake was criticized for its lack of naturalistic essence in an abundance of green-screen backdrops among its lifeless presentation, quite the opposite can be said for The Odyssey, where with the help once more of longtime Nolan collaborator, Hoyte Van Hoytema’s breathtaking cinematography, the film effortlessly emanates this extensive emphasis to every sequence that feels immensely palpable in the most elaborate ways that stretch far beyond the framing of the lens, with Nolan’s own atmospheric impulses not only effectively fleshing out the unpredictable danger and intensity of Odysseus’s journey, but also the lingering restlessness in the price for peace that Nolan covers substantially in a script continuously zeroing in on Odysseus’ family just as much as his decades-long quest to return home. Being that this is a movie that runs just shy of the three hour mark, Nolan’s instinct to periodically deviate away from Odysseus and his men is one that certainly helps the story maintain its appeal, with grief of those involved seemingly meaning something else in the constructs of these conflicted characters, but also transparency as immediately as the movie’s opening act to establish Nolan’s desire to deviate deliberately away from the source material, allowing him the capability to shape these memorable instances as transparently as he prefers, without the need to lose his audience among the complex lore of fantastical gods and Greek philosophy, and in turn gifting us an experience that feels freshly invigorating, even as the very beats of the book mirror the most memorable moments of Odysseus’ exploits, bringing nightmarish imagery to sequences that have prematurely been pronounced as unadaptable by today’s effects-heavy cinematic culture. On top of this, being that it’s a Christopher Nolan movie, it of course contains a non-linear structure with its storytelling to weave in and out of respective timelines and characters, in ways that utilizes the memories of the past to appraise introspective meaning to the future, and considering this episodic approach of Odysseus’ missions could just as easily feel disjointed in the wrong hands, especially in the structure lacking consistency in where it decides to go unceremoniously at any given time, it’s all the more impressive how Nolan bookends these moments with enough meaning and momentum to continuously leave us yearning for the next, in turn appraising ample humanity and empathy out of characters who are not entirely defined by their occasionally desperate and even irresponsible actions to survive another day. Aside from the self-serving desire of Nolan to imbed this story with converging timelines that meet engagingly during a third act climax that calls upon much of that aforementioned emotionality, the present day framing into the past of Odysseus’ trials and tribulations does add a profoundly clever method to comprise the storytelling in a storybook style structure that artistically breeds memorability for those who grew up reading the novel, bringing this authentic grasp to the authenticity of the material, without anything even closely resembling convolution or clumsiness to the ways each scene is staged or sequenced with one another. As expected, the intense sequences involving Odysseus’ periodic missions out of temporary confinement are easily among the film’s most rivetingly enticing pay-offs, especially with Oscar-winner Ludwig Goransson firing on all cylinders with a thunderously ominous series of compositions that breed terror in scenes and corresponding imagery that feel directly plucked from a horror movie. The action itself is sharply penetrating and abruptly swift to earn every square inch of its intended R-rating, as a result of hefty sound schemes and compelling fight choreography gifting us a durably resilient Odysseus than we’ve ever previously been privy to, and while Nolan ultimately keeps from indulging in the maniacal macabre of buckets of blood that would feel justifiable against sequences that have Damon channeling the ruthlessness of his inner Jason Bourne, there’s enough enjoyable delight spawned in his spontaneous adaptability to every situation that makes him the ideal candidate to lead any army against overwhelming odds, made all the more edge-of-the-seat enthralling by Nolan’s ability to flesh out the vulnerable designs of the characters against unforgiving environments that constantly humble them. In terms of the performances, while there was a lot of premature doubt from naysayers who each have their own ideal candidates lent to fictionalized characters, everybody big and small on the responsibility totem pole knocks it out of the park with prominent performances, especially those of Anne Hathaway, John Leguizamo, and Robert Pattinson, who show off dimensionality in turns that are nothing short of memorable to the film’s integrity. For Hathaway and Leguizamo, that could mean gold statue nominations next March, as a result of Hathaway’s tender vulnerability, which feels like she’s on the verge of tears in every overpowering observation that she delivers about the hopelessness of her husband’s return, as well as Leguizamo’s concealed conviction lent to every earnest delivery within this wearily weathered old man of wistful wisdom. Each of them inject so much inflating presence and crucial adversity to the integrity of the scenes they accompany that it helps to maintain the ensuing appeal of the film during the periodic impulses of the script to deviate away from Damon’s Odysseus during the opening act of the movie, and even though Damon’s emotional and identifiable transformation elicit a deeper and darker side from the actor that allows him to take charge of the movie’s primary focus, utility work from Hathaway and Leguizamo maintain the idea that Nolan films have and always will be ensemble pieces. As for Pattinson, he revels in the sleazily slimy constructs of a confrontational character with an insatiable thirst for the throne, elevated significantly by Pattinson’s sniveling and snarky sentiments branding a devious deceiver that not only fleshes out the actor’s capability to commit endlessly to a character, but also intuitive registries that constantly convey depravity to every advantageous objective that he attacks hands-on, in turn conjuring one of the year’s best villainous turns for a chameleon shape-shifter of an actor who adapts seamlessly to each new environment.

NEGATIVES

Even despite so many cunningly beneficial aspects endearing us to the integrity of Nolan’s storytelling, this is still a film weighed down on more than one measurement by its excessively indulgent screenplay, particularly against the constructs of an aforementioned nearly three hour runtime that had me occasionally checking out as a result of some scenes drowning on unnecessarily for far too long, while others deserving of more time and development felt condensed by editing techniques that almost immediately dropped anchor on their explorative sails. While Odysseus’ odyssey is a highly engaging story worthy of such length, as a result of the decades the journey spans, it’s what Nolan does with these minutes that inevitably feel most circumstantial on audience investments, especially considering the transitions between the years don’t exactly materialize effectively in either the inconsistency of the make-up designs, with Hathaway’s Penelope failing to age alongside Damon’s Odysseus, or even just the tangibles of the years feeling like a series of months or maybe even years, rather than decades. On top of this, while the sound design of the intentionally abrasively epic action sequences attain the necessary heft and influence to feel every devastating blow or invading object, clarity and conciseness of dialogue still appears to be Nolan’s single greatest adversity as a filmmaker, particularly as a result of the admirable-but-intrusive quality of articulating the authenticity of the environments that his scenes emanate from. While I would normally commend a director for including environmental elements such as loud talking from unfocused characters or roaring from various monsters, here it doesn’t allow the dialogue to transpire as coherently as needed, even in an IMAX theater of which I saw the movie in, and considering this has been a constant problem for me with Nolan movies dating back as far as Dunkirk, it feels like an unfortunate aspect that Nolan has been able to incapably shake to this point in his thirteen picture career, requiring me to turn on the subtitles once the movie is released to own or rent at home. Even when the dialogue is discernable, it’s not always written particularly subtle in the informational exposition that it seeks to convey, particularly alongside temporary characters involved in a scene or two throughout the movie’s long-winded runtime, and while I love everything that Nolan brings to the exploration of a script, it’s clear that it pales frustratingly in comparison to his direction, leaving so many of these character interactions stalled by distracting verbiage that feels a bit too contemporary to feel relevant during 1200 BCE.

OVERALL
The Odyssey is an embarrassment of remarkable riches in the best sense of the phrase, combining masterfully epic filmmaking and introspectively layered storytelling to afford the audience an intensely immersive and visually stimulating monumental achievement, courtesy of the industry’s biggest and boldest filmmaker of his generation. Alongside an exceptional ensemble, an ambitiously immense scope, and an examination of truth, Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s cherished novel is a sea-sprawling cinematic celebration that conjures the escapist essence of cinema’s clutches, in turn cementing a glaringly obvious frontrunner leading all Oscar nominations, next spring

My Grade: 8.9 or A-