The Reel Review
Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) retells the epic Greek tale of King Odysseus’s harrowing, ten-year journey home, after successfully fighting the Trojan War for ten years. Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland star in this epic, star-studded adaptation of the classic, long-form poem written by Homer 800 years before Christ.
The Odyssey is a rousing theatrical experience that is as filled with grandiose epicness as it is loud and long (three hours). The story unfolds via time jumps, with a screenplay smartly faithful to the original source material. All of the highlights are there – the Trojan Horse, Athena (Zendaya), the Cyclops, sorceress Circe (Samantha Morton), the kidnap-minded sea nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), the journey to Oceanus to visit the dead, the journey between the whirlpool Charybdis and monstrous multi-headed Scylla, and the musically hypnotic Sirens, as the epic tale explores themes of loyalty, faith and inevitable change. It is visually spectacular and the era-appropriate score is outstanding.
Damon, Hathaway and Holland all deliver compelling performances, with nice assists from John Leguizamo as Odysseus’ faithful servant and Robert Pattinson as the most conniving of the 108 cringey suitors scheming to marry Penelope and take control of Ithaca in Odysseus’s absence. The film could have benefitted from being shortened by 30 minutes (three hours is too long) and the stunt casting (was any Hollywood star NOT in this film?) reminds us that this is a bombastic (but deservedly) Oscar bait of a film, but an immensely satisfying showstopper of an ending makes the film’s few fore-mentioned shortcomings all worth it.
REEL FACTS
• Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway both appeared in Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi/adventure Interstellar.
• The Odyssey is the first full-length feature film completely shot on IMAX 70mm film cameras, and at a cost of $250 million to make, is Nolan’s most expensive film.
• The Cyclops’s cave was a real cave, Nestor’s Cave in the Peloponnese region of Greece, used by humans since the neolithic period, from 10,000 to 2,000 BC.
Video & Photo
Hmm, still don’t know if I should see it in 70mm IMAX and nothing here convinces me to see it at the theater. I wonder if this review would have been different with Alan Ritchson in the cast. I wonder what the Men On Film rating for this would be.