The Odyssey

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★

Rated: MA+

Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Written for the Screen by:  Christopher Nolan

Produced by: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Ann Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’O, Samantha Morton with Zendaya and Charlize Theron.

‘I can still save them from the gods.’

Based on Homer’s poem, ‘The Odyssey’, believed to be composed in the 8^th century BC, Christopher Nolan has brought the mayhem of Greek Mythology to life on the big screen, shooting the film using only IMAX film cameras.

This is an ambitious project with complex storylines of: cowardliness and greed, the love of a waiting wife and son, and the frailty of agreement amongst men to honour the law of Zeus: xenia (“guest friendship”).  The law to treat a beggar as if he was a god in disguise; to provide food and shelter; to wash their feet; to treat a stranger as you want to be treated.  A code.  A law amongst men.  That’s broken.

Odysseus, King of Ithaca (Matt Damon) has been at war.  He left his wife Penelope (Ann Hathaway) and son, Telemachus (Tom Holland) years ago.  The war is over.  Has been for eight years.  But Odysseus has not returned home.

Suiters plague the palace of Ithaca, eating and drinking Odysseus’s house to ruin, as Penelope refuses to remarry, refusing to fill the empty seat left by the king.

She’s sick of being Queen of Ithica without a king.

Their son, Telemachus persists in resisting being drawn into a fight with the suiters, refusing to give them excuse to kill him, to then take his place as rightful heir to the throne.

Wife and son wait, because Odysseus promised to come home.

The storyline follows Odysseus as he drifts through a ‘time of apparent magic.’

The tale brutal as the film follows Odysseus through the battle of Troy, to one-eyed giants and monsters – I began to remember some of Homer’s poem, the disguises used to resemble sheep to escape a Cyclops.

The Odyssey is more brutal than expected, with visceral battle scenes without overdoing the violence; a glancing pan of the camera enough so there’s anger, but more emphasis on the nature of men and the magic of mythology.

There’re sirens and yearning, sun gods, witches and the love of an old dog, waiting for his master, all shown to the beat of a drum that beats faster, stronger, raising the tension as battles are shown with close-ups of faces as men drown, as waves splash across the screen to immerse the audience into the battles at sea, as men struggle to climb aboard boats, escaping from giants and monsters.  The vision captured by hand-held cameras that jump as hand-to-hand combat throws soldiers against masters, monsters and traitors.

The film holds the storyline together through moments that sign-post the traits of character, like striking the string of a bow before a hunt to give the hunted a chance – to fight, with honour.

The highlights a clever way of covering the vast content of Homer’s poem but some of the ideas are given more depth than others.

Matt Damon holds the film together well with his quiet bravery.  Robert Pattinson made for the role as the villainous Antinous.

Then there’s the thought-provoking dialogue from the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), ‘You want to remember but what if remembering destroys your happiness?’

‘Then it’s not real,’ replies Odysseus.

To the soul of the film, Zendaya as Athena who haunts Odysseus as he fights to make his way home.

Without unpacking the huge moments of each scene, there’s simple strength shown in a restrained telling.  With flare through a well-timed soundtrack, and a slow developing character driving the film with sincerity.