The Odyssey (2026)
Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Premise: An adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. Following the Trojan War, Odysseus (Matt Damon) journeys back his home in Ithica but he is delayed by side quests and disasters. Suitors gather in Ithica with the intention of marrying Odysseus’ wife and taking the throne.
What Works: The inherent risk of epic filmmaking is losing track of the characters in the broad scope of the story. One of the most impressive qualities of The Odyssey is the way it manages an expansive canvas but centers the characters. This is ultimately a story about a family. Odysseus has been gone for twenty years, leaving his family and his throne vulnerable to unscrupulous usurpers. The film smartly crosscuts Odysseus’ journey with the drama in Ithica, creating a ticking clock scenario that becomes quite tense and delivers on both the personal family drama and the political intrigue. The film also integrates flashbacks to the fall of Troy and does so in a judicious way. Rather than restaging large portions of the war, director and writer Christopher Nolan is very deliberate about what moments to dramatize and films them from Odysseus’ point of view. Part of the art of adaptation is interpreting an existing text, applying a point of view and making the original work relevant to a contemporary audience. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey reimagines Odysseus as a troubled veteran who struggles with the moral and political consequences of war. This is the version of The Odyssey for a post-Iraq and Afghanistan War audience and the film makes an interesting juxtaposition with American Sniper, The Hurt Locker, and The Messenger. Rendering this ancient myth in a contemporary and accessible way is best accomplished in the production design. The look of the film is credible and integrates fantastical and mythological elements in a way that complements the rest of the movie.
What Doesn’t: Christopher Nolan’s films tend to be emotionally muted. The Odyssey suffers from this a bit. The film’s emotional range is limited and the moments of devastation, relief, and catharsis are a bit flat. The editing sometimes struggles with rhythm. This flaw is most evident in the early scenes on Ithica. The dialogue is also sometimes inconsistent. Quality dialogue is not about realism. It is about finding a sound that suits the setting and tone of the movie. Period pieces, especially those set in the distant past, tend to have a formal syntax. Nolan relaxes the style of the dialogue but it sometimes sounds too anachronistic. The cast of The Odyssey includes a lot of popular actors, some of them in very small roles. The film takes on the quality of an Irwin Allen disaster picture and the celebrity appearances are sometimes distracting. The talent of the actors enlisted here is inversely proportional to the quality of their characterization, especially the women.
Bottom Line: The Odyssey is impressively crafted and successfully compresses an epic story into a single feature film. Some specific elements are creaky and the surplus of famous faces is distracting but this is a relevant and fresh approach to a legendary story.
Episode: #1109 (July 26, 2026)