The Odyssey review

 You never really know what you’re going to get with a Christopher Nolan film. I remember wondering before both Dunkirk how he could find a new way to present a familiar story. With Oppenheimer I imagined it wouldn’t be very exciting yet it was even though it was mostly conversational. As for Inception and Tenet, they are strange out there movies that work even though they shouldn’t. The Odyssey is I suppose the original story, or at least one of the first great tales. Its credited to Homer though he may just have been the first person to write down a story that, like many of that time, were passed on by word of mouth. Can Christopher Nolan reinvigorate yet remain true to such a venerable work? Spoiler- yes!

 

The Odyssey is probably the only one of this year’s major releases which can’t really be spoiled by advance plot details especially as this version is seen by those who know the fine detail of the poem as the most accurate to the story. Due to its age, The Odyssey has been borrowed from by countless tv and film productions. So if scenes in this epic new adaptation seem familiar that’s because they were lifted from the original but for anyone adapting the tale now that makes it difficult to produce something which feels fresh. However, despite such familiar strands the entire story has never been fully adapted into a movie before.

As he did with Dunkirk ,albeit that covered just days rather than years, the director tells this story going back and forth, from the Trojan War to Odysseus’ crazy homecoming journey and his return. This works well in underpinning the hero’s journey even though it may seem odd not to show that in a linear manner. Several flashbacks to the attack on Troy are seen from Odysseus’ changing perspective. The first time it’s a desperate, heroic plan as he and his soldiers are crammed inside the wooden horse. Later it becomes a strategic victory. Yet the last time we go back it is to see Odysseus wandering around dazed, shocked by the carnage his attack has generated.

The basic story sees the Odysseus, the King of Ithaca win the war against Troy with some help from a large wooden horse and then take ten years to get back home during which he and his crew are gradually depleted by dangerous encounters with the likes of a giant, a witch, and singing Sirens. Awaiting his return his wife Penelope and son Telemachus have to keep a host of suitors at bay as she remains resolutely convinced her husband is coming back. Eventually he returns alone, having lost his crew along the way. Yet he has also realised his own mistakes and the futility of war. The story gave us the word Odyssey which can refer to any long, arduous, ambitious journey sort of like making this film probably was. The next time you miss your train console yourself that you won’t need to battle a giant to get the next one!

Some of the choices Nolan has made do help make the story more relatable; he’s called his style here “tactile realism.”. The film always feels very human despite the presence of the Gods and various mystical creatures. Everyone uses American accents so we don’t have any embarrassing attempts at Greek ones. The Gods and mythical beings are presented as quite ordinary rather than standing on a mountain top in a classical temple declaiming in Shakespearian tones. Its as of they are figments created by peoples belief rather than actual Gods. So both Athena and Calypso are dressed in pale summer clothing that wouldn’t look out of place in Greece today. Circe is an eccentric cottage dweller and her method of turning the crew into literal pigs has nothing to do with waving a wand.

So despite much talk of doing the Gods’ bidding we never see them manifested any other way than as regular looking people. This helps ground the movie to make it more reliable to the modern day without losing the intent of the story. Having grown up watching films that showed the Gods literally living in the clouds in marble temples looking down on mortals it’s refreshing to see them being portrayed this way.

When the threats are large scale we see them mostly from the perspective of the crew. This is especially effective in scenes where they are trapped by the cyclops Polyphemus in a cave. The camera stays with the Odysseus and co which really emphasises how large this creature is. Both the giant whirlpool and the sequence with the Sirens are similarly staged so we never see the detail of the Sirens who remain distant figures. One visually striking sequence in Hades sees giant armoured soldiers pursuing the crew- again shot from the latter’s viewpoint to make them seem eerily tall and dangerous. The Chylla is glimpsed as tentacles reaching out and plucking people from the deck of the ship. All of these encounters are as photo realistic as they can be yet still hold the excitement of those old stop motion scenes that adorned vintage fantasy films. Its often said that digital effects have taken the atmosphere out of movies but that’s not the case here. Like any tool its how you use it that matters.

The Troy sequences are closely shot and notable for extensive use of life size physical sets and props. Nolan can also extract the maximum tension from something as straightforward as the Trojan horse infiltrators trying to get the gates open as they are picked of one by one. Never have you wanted gears to turn so quickly.  The final confrontation between Odysseus and the suitors makes for an excellent climax, one of several sequences where the tension is amped up to the maximum.  All of these are accompanied by (very) loud percussive frantic music which becomes increasingly intense like some sort of revving engine. Its hugely effective and unusual score, created by Ludwig Goransson (Sinners) in his third collaboration with Nolan. He’s said that he used some unorthodox instruments which would have been around in Homer’s time.

 Odysseus himself is played by Matt Damon Sporting a long beard (he grew it for a year for the role) with a subtle understatement . He avoids the generic heroic type and as events unfold the character tries to stay true both to what the Gods require and what his crew are thinking. The actor is adept at letting the decade long journey show in the character’s mannerisms and behaviour; it might be the role of his career. Though absent for long stretches Anne Hathaway adds another fantastic performance to her repertoire portraying Penelope’s hidden belief her husband will return while fending off the advances of the suitors. Every time I see her in a role she is so convincing and its even possible here to ignore the fact that she is too young to be playing Tom Holland’ mother. Samantha Morton is terrific as the unhinged yet not unsympathetic Circe. This story makes it clear why you should never accept hospitality from a strange woman living alone in a remote cottage! Meanwhile Robert Pattinson has fun sneering and plotting as Antinous.

We are encouraged initially to see Odysseus as the hero of this story rooting for him at every turn and yet the character’s own doubts over what his journey has cost and whether the attack on Troy was justified turn this around somewhat as the film reaches its closing strait. This is not necessarily the intent of the original poem in which the character’s accounts of his battles are matter of factly reported without feelings of guilt. Yet without that aspect it is hard to see how the film would have otherwise worked. Its more than just an epic adventure. Likewise, there are said to be some visual elements that don’t fit the period but given it is a work of fiction in the first place, does it really matter?

The Odyssey appropriately lasts a long time- two hours and fifty two minutes- but there are few moments where you will feel that time dragging. Its intense and unrelenting and I would hesitate to dub it Christopher Nolan’s best film as some recently have. It is a gripping, robust well told story and proof that a good yarn can always be retold.