'The Odyssey' Is a Flawed, But Impressive Achievement
Words like “masterpiece” and “epic achievement” are being thrown around in the lead-up to The Odyssey. Then there’s the extreme opposite that will likely stir up the alorythm pot. Whatever The Odyssey’s Rotten Tomatoes score may be, there’s no denying it’s an epic that might be compared to the classics of Cecil B. DeMille and David Lean. But that doesn’t mean it’s flawless; far from it. There are problems with this film that a typical audience might not embrace. Me included. The director’s greatest strengths can also become his greatest weakness.
Christopher Nolan’s greatest gift as a filmmaker is his editing and writing. On all technical ends, The Odyssey is the work of someone who spent years perfecting his craft through trial and error. From the embarrassing stunts in The Dark Knight Rises to the embarrassing script with amazing stunts in Tenent, Nolan has now made an incredibly ambitious flick that is narratively complex and visually grand. The Odyssey isn’t known to be confusing. To my embarrassing confession, I’ve never read Homer’s Odyssey. Yet, how many people have to match the picture’s $250 million budget on opening weekend?
Nolan is often criticized for making confusing films. Contrarily, CN is making simple plots with complex structure. Chris’ usage of time doesn’t often feel tacky. Here it’s more of a mixed bag. The picture works best when it’s telling its story in sequential order. The journey from Odysseus (Matt Damon) being lost to his triumphant return feels long, arduous, and earned. Starting the picture with Antinous (Robert Pattinson) overrunning Ithaca, then cutting to Odysseus’ farewell to Penelope (Anne Hathaway) doesn’t really land. It’s interesting. But it is too disjointed. Perhaps that’s the way it was in Homer’s poem. But it’s more than just that. It’s the way the movie is paced.
There’s nobody who edits as slick as Chris Nolan does. Memento has its place in history for a reason. His cuts are as smooth as butter and as fast as a race car. That style is never going to change. Nor should it, yet for this material, it can feel like a headache of information. Maybe that’s the point. Christopher Nolan wants you to watch the material again. Aside from increasing ticket sales, it’s a reason to pick up on details you may have missed. Most filmmakers play checkers while Nolan plays chess. His stories might be intentionally puzzling, yet he makes them simple enough that the audience can get the gist of what’s going on. Making them want to come back to pick up on what they missed. Christoper Nolan hopes you will pick up Homer’s book or at least do research before or after seeing the film.
What worked in The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur was that you didn’t have to read the Bible to get the story. Here, Nolan’s jumbled editing tactics make things more puzzling than necessary. When it comes to the picture’s emotional payoffs and grand finales, the movie delivers. Many filmmakers try to tackle famous literature. But they don’t reach a mass audience, as they come across as bland and generic. There’s a difference between Troy and this film. Troy has good casting but flat delivery, whereas The Odyssey is non-formulaic, flawed, yet unique, and far from mediocre. The picture’s goal is to bring the classic epics back to the big screen. While this picture might not have a chariot race moment, it's got its cyclops. Then it has the storming of the Trojan gates. Those moments are incredible, like the films it draws from, because it doesn’t use computers. It’s almost all physical. Even the cyclops is a mixture of puppetry and extremely minimal CGI. It’s almost like Christopher Nolan’s Jurassic Park moment. When Odysseus’ men are out at sea, they’re really filming out in the middle of the ocean. With IMAX cameras placed within a 300-pound coffin. This type of risky filmmaking is rare. It’s what separates the greats from the amateurs, and it shows on screen.
All those men storming the gates are real men, not thousands of faceless CGI characters used in wide shots. The physicality Christopher Nolan uses imbues a fantasy-set picture with authenticity. The Odyssey is an authentic myth. It feels lived-in and tangible. There’s nothing set in reality other than historical inspiration, so melting down over certain casting decisions is silly. Understandably, if Elliot Page were cast as Achilles, that would be ridiculous. Someone of their height would get turned into mincemeat. Their role is sacrificial yet meaningful. There are instances where the film feels too modern; however, acting as if racism never even existed. Although the movie is pure fiction, its tangible aesthetic conflicts with that realm of believability, undermining it. But it’s a very minor complaint. Anyone who's ridiculing the actors or the casting department for being “too woke” should have their mom cut off their internet.
One area of concern leading up to the picture was its contemporary dialogue, using words like “dad” instead of “father.” When you see the film for yourself, it makes sense why Christopher Nolan made this decision. At the breakneck pace Nolan trims his picture, Old English, or Greek, would have made the movie too difficult for the audience to follow. The casting of big Hollywood A-listers makes it easy to remember each character since they’re discernible stars. The performances are solid all around, especially from Anne Hathaway (who’s the master of crying), John Leguizamo, and Samantha Morton.
If there are two major things a film does to earn its spot for greatness, it’s making audiences want to come back to see the film multiple times and having people ask “how did they do that?” With jaw-dropping visuals and a complex, fulfilling emotional narrative, Christopher Nolan earns his spot as an incredible director who continues to challenge himself. Swords and sandals weren’t quite Christopher Nolan’s forte. Or so it seemed. After mastering the comic book genre, space, war, and biography, Nolan can add the epic into the mix. The Odyssey isn’t perfect, but it’s one of the best epics since The Lord of the Rings.
