The Odyssey
What follows are my initial thoughts. This could easily change in its rating upon a rewatch. I think this is a film which demands to be seen more than once.
In much of Nolan’s oeuvre, as his films begin to come to a close, there is often a scene which unlocks the film. They're normally these larger-than-life grand moments where mystery is unveiled before your very eyes. When Nolan was tapped to adapt the Odyssey, it felt perhaps like a strange fit. What more is there to say about one of the oldest stories ever told? And further, is Nolan the right person to do so?
Even as the film begins in its perhaps clunky opening half an hour, it seems as if this narrative will play out as expected. It is one man's desperation to get back to his wife and son. However, as the film draws to a close, Matt Damon's Odysseus recounts the Battle of Troy to his wife, Penelope, and before launching into a monologue, there is a small exchange of words:
“Then the songs probably seem silly.”
“They make me cry.”
This exchange of dialogue between the pair, and then being thrust into this flashback, guided by Odysseus, recontextualise the whole film for me. Odysseus is a character raptured by guilt. His Odyssey is a physical journey back home to Ithaca, but Nolan makes the argument that it is more a mental journey of coming to terms with what he's done to humanity. It is a film filled with sorrow and regret as much as it is spectacle and awe.
The film feels in direct conversation with Nolan's previous work in Oppenheimer, albeit perhaps a little less well realised. What we're witnessing is the portrait of a man dealing with the immense weight of an act so smart yet so defiant. Of an act that was met with thunderous applause. Yet that thunder broke the once peaceful sky. As his single act of ingenious strategy and heroism also broke something sacred and foundational to the ancient world's way of life: humanity.
Once you're privy to this realisation that happens in this final monologue, it truly does recontextualise the rest of the film, Odysseus's journey to escape his own mind, to escape what he'd done, an unwillingness to return to his home for fear of what it would have become. He is a character with immense sorrow and regret, which perhaps isn't as forthcoming through Damon's performance throughout the film but this sorrow is baked into the fibres of the filmmaking.
Most notably in the film structure, where our narrative begins, Zeus's law has already broken. Odysseus’s decisions have rippled through Greece and made their way back to Ithaca. Our journey throughout the film with Odysseus is fragmented and disjointed but emphasises this man's desire to forget, to remember slowly as the guilt, the horrors, the sadness he has encountered would be too much.
In scale even, we see just how small and insignificant Odysseus and his crew feel against the vast open air and ocean that lies ahead of them. Seeing this in 70mm IMAX only enhances that feeling. And while this is true when they're on their journey back home, whether that may be when they are physically journeying on their boat or coming head to head with the numerous obstacles which lie in their way. These men feel so small, there's a hopelessness baked into the images of the frame.
This is juxtaposed quite nicely when we flash back to moments of the Battle of Troy, where the Greeks and Odysseus feel large and towering and menacing. These creatures which felt so small and insignificant in these vast lands of The Gods still are able to reap so much destruction and damage on civilisation. It's genius storytelling through images.
You could argue that the edit itself is also in support of this idea of sorrow running throughout the film, and while I may find that upon a re-watch initially it is the grievance I have with the film, everything moves so quickly there's not a lot of chance to sit with anything that's really happening; it's cut incredibly fast. The moments when this isn't happening are the standouts of the film: Odysseus's monologue scenes, scenes wth Penelope and Telemachus, Elliot Page's gorgeous monologue: the moments when the movie gets to breathe, it really sings.
I'd be remiss as well if I didn't speak about the sound design in the film. Nolan's films have always been sonic landscapes as much as they have been visual. There's as much emotion in the sonic delivery as there is in the visual. I do often come back to the quote, in Tenet "Don't try to understand it, feel it". As I do think Nolan tries to communicate as much as possible through his sound. The Odyssey is no different, and quite frankly, it might be his best sound work to date. The overbearing cacophony of sounds that are demonstrated during these scenes of grandeur and spectacle, but are telling a different story, screams become the symphony to victory, and in moments of resolve and regret, silence becomes deafening.
The integration of this sound design with Ludwig Göransson’s score is absolutely magnificent. It is unbelievable how this man keeps knocking it out of the park again and again, but I truly think he has found a spiritual collaborator in Nolan. Göransson is doing something so unique here, which feels completely different from every other score in his catalogue. Writing themes for each of the characters and weaving them into the film makes each of these people feel more nuanced and coloured, particularly his motif for Odysseus feels full of regret and anguish from the get-go before this revelation, this monologue happens; you feel his sorrow simply through the music.
It's towards the end of this monologue; however, we get what you could argue is the twist of the film. This revelation of who Athena actually is, who this mysterious invisible person that's been guiding him on his journey is. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy, somebody who you feel is accompanying him for his strategic prowess and genius, helping him to try to get his men home instead, is this conscious reminder of the destruction of the innocence lost through his act of heroism.
I truly think for all the grandeur and the opulence of the technical craft of this film, the spectacles that are on screen, it is actually some of Nolan’s most reflexive and thematically coherent work he's made. It is a far less straightforward approach to a beloved story that many people know. It's a man deeply regretful of what he has done to the world and having to reckon with that. And Athena, or this manifestation of Athena, is this pin that holds the film together.
Nolan's decision to omit most of The Gods from the Odyssey, I think, is genius. The quote that introduces the film "In a time of apparent magic" sets this up quite beautifully. Nolan doesn't negate the mystical or the fantastical, but he has chosen to have the gods be more untouchable, ethereal beings in the film. For what reason? There could be many. This idea of defying The Gods, of this act of heroism, was seen as this grand defiance that The Gods are punishing him for. Or perhaps The Gods are simply manifestations of our own internally realised world.
It is a film that I have walked away from with more to chew on than I was expecting. I knew this was going to be a technical marvel, and it really is. I don't want to understate how impeccably crafted this film is; just the sheer fact that it was completely shot in 70mm IMAX is unbelievable. Every frame is gorgeous, though I wish some lasted longer.
It is just a master at work. It's a film chock-full of great performances. Damon is a wonderful lead. I do wish we felt more of the sorrow from him. However, I do wonder if this changes on a re-watch. What I will say is that the side performances are what really captured me. Anne Hathaway's Penelope is towering, enamouring. She's a woman who has had to remain composed for decades, suddenly starting to break.
Zendaya's Athena, as I said, I think ties the entire film together. She's in the movie so sparingly, but she's communicating so much with just her looks. Samantha Morton is absolutely terrifying as Circe and provides one of the most horrific, enthralling sequences in the film. And Elliot Page is this really grounded, important character on Odysseus's journey of reckoning the humanity he gave up in order for victory. He delivers an absolutely stellar monologue that I think is up there with the best scenes in the film.
Truly, truly enamoured by this film, it's hard to believe it even exists. And for as much as I'm glad for the spectacle, I'm even more glad for the emotional depth and resonance. In a story of Gods and monsters, Nolan's real trick is unearthing the humanity