There’s no easy way to say this: Christopher Nolan has done it again.
After “Oppenheimer,” three summers ago, Nolan — with many other hits under his belt — has taken a 3,000 year old story we were all made to reach in school into a stunning piece of cinema.
Don’t let’s get into an argument about hype or too much praise. Nolan’s three hour movie is an event, like James Cameron’s “Titanic” or DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” You can quibble about this or that, but Nolan’s canvas is all encompassing. And it just builds from moment to moment so that its three hours culminate in dizzying excitement.
First of all, and most importantly, there’s the screenplay. Nolan lays out the story of Odysseus simply, explaining the main character’s reason for leaving home, his legend as a leader and warrior, and his desperate desire to return to his family. His version may not be exactly like the one you know, and it can’t be if this going to be a movie and a not a miniseries. Elements are added or dropped to streamline the storytelling for cinema. If you want more, there’s always the actual epic poem, or its forerunner, “The Iliad.”
If you’re a fan of “Lord of the Rings” or “Game of Thrones,” you won’t have any trouble picking up Nolan’s saga even if you’ve never read “The Odyssey” or know nothing more about it than the catch words like “Trojan horse” or “Helen of Troy.” Nolan’s organized Odysseus’s journey to Troy and back in a very straightforward way, as a series of thrilling adventures with ever increasing obstacles that you’re pretty sure he’ll overcome, but all thrilling.
Twenty years pass while we see the impact of Odysseus’s absence on his devoted wife, Penelope, and the son, Telemachus, who’s grown up without a father. This trio is the center of the movie, and the way Nolan has adapted them with Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland respectively you can’t take your eyes off of them. Damon shoulders the weight of the film with athletic grace in a lead performance — the best of his career including “The Martian” — that should get him his Oscar at last. Hathaway is exemplary as Penelope, bringing vulnerability and empathy to the noble and devoted queen. Holland is steadfast as a son trying to understand his father’s legend.
A fourth main element would be the pulsating, escalating score, written by Ludwig Göransson, that by the third act puts the film into a kind of overdrive. Göransson is unmatched these days, having become the John Williams of his generation.
And then we’ve got his superior supporting cast that Nolan drops along Odysseus’s path for better or worse. Samantha Morton is probably the most mind blowing of all as Circe, the deceptive goddess who all but destroys Odysseus’s crew with a ghastly spell. Charlize Theron is the great beauty Calypso, who rescues Odysseus until he’s ready to continue his journey. An ethereal Zendaya is Odysseus’s muse and spiritual guide. The not least of this group is John Leguizamo, an inspired choice to play Eumaeus, Odysseus’s faithful servant who has waited patiently with his dog, Argos, for their master’s vindication.
And not to be overlooked: the somehow controversial casting of two actors. Lupita Nyongo’o as Helen of Troy fulfills her breathless beauty, her color is of no matter. Nyongo’o more than convincingly conveys Helen’s own legend. And there is only praise for Elliot Page’s Sinon, whose second appearance, as a ghostly manipulator, is unforgettable.
Homer — or whoever wrote “The Odyssey” as it was gathered into lore — did a good job of cementing that main story of the reuniting family and all its obstacles. Nolan does as good as one structuring set stunning set pieces. The most thrilling is the story of Odysseus and his crew trapped by the fantastical and menacing Cyclops in his cave.
The other, obviously, is the Trojan Horse, with Odysseus and his soldiers stuffed into the famous wooden decoy for real — Nolan shot it that way. Everyone’s waiting for it, right? At the premiere, a giant replica of the horse pawed the air in front of the theater. The Trojan horse is the emblem of “The Odyssey,” almost like the ship in “Titanic,” and Nolan does nothing else than recreate Homer’s central moment for the ages.
And then we hit that third act, with no lagging much less checking of watches. Odysseus, sent on his way by Calypso, arrives in Ithaca disguised a beggar so he can evaluate what’s happened since he left. Now, “The Odyssey” churns into high gear, a culmination of battles and mental chess. But also watch out for a scene that Hathaway steals talking to her long lost husband through a screen. You can feel her power and his regret.
Everyone else, all the artisans involved, make “The Odyssey” hum, from Jennifer Lame’s editing to Hoyt van Hoytema’s cinematography, the production, lighting, make up, and so on.
One thing is for sure. “The Odyssey” will take two viewings, and maybe a third, to digest and comprehend. There’s too much to take in all at once, too many hidden characters — look for Bill Irwin, for example, and Benny Safdie, and I haven’t even gotten to Robert Pattinson’s snarling villain Antinous, plus Odysseus’s wise captain Eurylochus (an excellent Himash Patel) and Jon Bernthal’s wise — and least ever Bernthalian — Menelaus.
Nolan has combined artistic mastery with commercial savvy. All the things you like about his movies are present in “The Odyssey.” There’s a lot of “Dunkirk,” some “Interstellar,” and even a subtle nod to Terrence Malick. There certainly isn’t going to another film on this level of depth, showmanship, and grandness in 2026. Thirty years ago I was naive enough to think something would sneak in snatch victory from “Titantic.” Now, we know better.
Two add-ons: don’t worry about the language being too “modern.” Uses of the words “mom” and “dad” are jarring at first, but it’s not a theme of the film. And IMAX, shmy-max. Great if you can see “The Odyssey” in that kind of theater, but the movie runs on character and story, not the scale of the screen.
