Movie Review – ‘The Odyssey’ earns every bit of its epic reputation

The most talked-about film of the summer finally hit screens on July 17. A film with perhaps the most star-studded cast in history, The Odyssey brings Homer’s epic poem to life and it’s, well, just that: epic.

Like the book, the film finds Odysseus (Matt Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, adrift at sea years after the Trojan War (the basis for Homer’s prequel, The Iliad). Facing challenge after challenge, Odysseus will stop at nothing to get his men home and return to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and their son Telemachus (Tom Holland). Meanwhile, while Odysseus has been battling the elements, Cyclops, an amorous Calypso (Charlize Theron), and essentially every obstacle known to man, Penelope has been busy fighting off suitors who want her hand in marriage along with Odysseus’ throne and fortune. Telemachus, who was just a toddler when his father went off to war, has grown into an honorable young man determined to find him and bring him home.

Directed by the incomparable Christopher Nolan, The Odyssey has been a project he wanted to bring to the big screen for more than 20 years, calling it “one of the great adventure stories of all time.” Nolan is no stranger to IMAX, having filmed in the format for seven of his recent movies, but here he accomplishes a feat never done before — filming the entire 172-minute movie in IMAX 70mm film.

To understand the complexity of that feat, you have to know that each reel of film can hold only three minutes of footage, meaning production had to continuously stop action midstream and start over again. On top of that, IMAX cameras don’t easily allow for close-up action because they’re brutally loud. To solve the problem, the crew built soundproof enclosures around the cameras to limit excess noise.

If that wasn’t enough, Nolan resisted the use of CGI and completed filming in just over three months (91 days) across six different locations, including Greece, Italy, Iceland, Morocco, Scotland, and Hollywood soundstages. But perhaps the coolest location was the island of Favignana, where Homer had Odysseus and his men stop to feed on goats and gather supplies before their battle with Cyclops.

Damon called it his most difficult role yet, as he and the other actors were pelted with rain day after day at sea, stuffed inside a giant gift horse for the Trojans, or fighting for their lives in a nearly pitch-black cave.

When Christopher Nolan calls, you accept the role regardless of how big the film or part is — and that’s exactly what happened for most of the cast. Well, all except one… but more on that later.

The Odyssey finds Nolan reuniting with many actors he’s worked with before, including Robert Pattinson, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and others. Yet it’s not as though he had them in mind while writing. During a recent podcast interview with Amy Poehler, Nolan shared, “I actually don’t think about actors when I’m writing. I try not to. I try to really just live through the characters in the writing process, then come out the other side and go, ‘How is this gonna work? Who are we getting for this?'” Reportedly, he did just that — except when it came to casting his Helen of Troy, Lupita Nyong’o.

Damon looks in better shape than men half his age. During an interview on the Kelce brothers’ podcast, he shared, “I used to walk around at between 185 and 200, and I did [this] whole movie at 167. And I haven’t been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet.” For a guy who seems to have an affinity for roles where he’s fighting to get home — Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar, and The Martian — The Odyssey marks his most ambitious role yet and his best performance since Good Will Hunting.

Tom Holland has shared in several interviews how anxious he was about stepping into a Christopher Nolan film, but it certainly doesn’t show on screen. While he doesn’t face anywhere near the adversity of Damon’s character, Holland is completely believable as a young man trying to protect his mother and bring his father home. A neat little fact: Sony’s current Spider-Man had to convince the studio to push back filming on Spider-Man: Brand New Day so he could star in both films. Now Holland headlines the two most anticipated movies of the summer, arriving just two weeks apart. Even better, he got to surprise his real-life love Zendaya with Nolan’s desire to cast her as Athena.

Zendaya, as has become the norm lately, is impeccable as the goddess of war. Damon shared in an interview with Elle how jealous he was of the Euphoria actress after she was reportedly called “perfect” following a single take. “She got a ‘perfect’? I’ve never even gotten a ‘great.’ She got a ‘perfect’? He [Tom Holland] and I bitched about it for the entire rest of the film. ‘Did you get anything today?’ ‘No, I got a good — moving on.’ ‘Yeah, me too.'”

It sounds like the boys had plenty of competition, as Samantha Morton reportedly received a round of applause after one of her scenes as the sorceress Circe.

Twilight‘s Robert Pattinson plays Antinous, a slimy suitor determined to marry Penelope at any cost. Despite working with Nolan on Tenet and being well aware of the director’s nearly flawless filmography, Pattinson didn’t immediately accept the role like everyone else. He recently shared the story of his first conversation with Nolan: “‘Yeah, can’t wait to read it.’ He’s like, ‘You want to read it? Everyone else just said yes.'”

And as for Lupita Nyong’o, she had never even read The Odyssey before being cast which feels surprising considering how many American high school students are assigned the book.

The cast is rounded out by Theron, Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead, The Punisher), Mia Goth (last year’s glorious Frankenstein), director Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems), and scene-stealer John Leguizamo. Playing Eumaeus, Odysseus’s loyal servant and friend, Leguizamo delivers what may be a career-best performance.

The Odyssey isn’t without controversy — though much of it is ridiculous by any reasonable standard. Racists have questioned Nolan’s casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, often described as the most beautiful woman in the world. Nyong’o praised the “imagination and daring” of the creative decision during a recent interview on Today.

Similarly, some critics questioned Nolan’s inclusion of musician Travis Scott in a small role as a bard and transgender actor Elliot Page, whom Nolan previously worked with on Inception. Others complained that the cast speaks in American English rather than British English. Quite rubbish if you ask me.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Nolan addressed the criticism, saying, “All I can do is make the best film I possibly can in the most sincere way. It’s very different from how anyone else would do it, but that’s what adaptation is.” Nyong’o later added that the film is a “reflection of our times” and that “the point of an adaptation is to say something new with old material.”

Love. Intrigue. Deceit. The Odyssey has it all — and so much more. Respect the director and catch it in IMAX because there may never be another film quite like it.