The Odyssey: Movie Review

Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, Elliott Page, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Charlize Theron, Himesh Patel, Mia Goth, Samantha Morton
Director: Christopher Nolan

Homer's The Odyssey is one of the world's first original stories, a tale of an epic journey written some 3,000 years ago.

So it's perhaps apt that Christopher Nolan's movie is an equally epic outing, lasting nearly 3 hours on screen and cramming in an all-star cast of talent.

And there's no doubting Nolan's ambition here - a film of such immeasurable scale from the very beginning as it follows Damon's Odysseus as he tries to get his men home after the end of the Trojan War.

But it's not all perfect going, no matter how much you're willing to fawn over and fall over the spectacle that plays out.

Its opening is a mess, a mix of exposition and dialogue dumping that's made worse by the almost piecemeal and episodic feel of some of the tribulations of the men as they try to get home. In trying to assemble all the pieces early on, Nolan almost falls over himself and ends up making the start incredibly boring and emotionally bereft as he struggles with the film's flow.

It's not further helped by encounters with the Cyclops which feel rushed and stripped of danger as the men are menaced by a larger-than-life character, with beats of the story sacrificed for speed. Another meeting later with oversized enemies suffers similarly, though the technical execution of this scene (as opposed to the Cyclops, which seems to pay homage to Ray Harryhausen unintentionally and with a blasting score) is impressive and once again a demonstration of the scale of Nolan's ambition.

Fortunately, things become more settled with a disturbing encounter with Samantha Morton's Circe, who proves to be as menacing as she is quiet. And it's here that Nolan appears to be adding layers to the film, presenting a woman on her own that has been affected by the nature of the invaders, leaving her traumatised and with PTSD.

It's a thematic thread which is sown early on and which pays off in the end with Damon's Odysseus showing some of the hubris that Homer intended for him during the oratory of The Odyssey (a man who wouldn't listen to gods, his wife and his men) but adding in a layer at the horror that men do in the search for victory.

It all comes to the boil with the Fall of Troy, the majority of which is saved for the back third of the film, adding a more morally ambiguous edge to proceedings.

Visually, there are moments that soar - early shots in the IMAX presentation reveal the solitude of their quest to return home. A ship alone in turbulent waters, a man walking alone on a seemingly endless beach with debris scattered around him - there's no end to Nolan's visual and visceral take on the Odyssey and it's worth seeing on the largest screen possible because of the craft at play here.

Of the ensemble cast, Himesh Patel deserves praise for his role as Odysseus' second-in-command, whose steely determination to exhort him to listen to his men falls on deaf ears; as mentioned Samantha Morton is uniformly excellent as Circe and while Damon digs deep and delves into darkness for his Odysseus, he's elevated by those around him. Pattinson once again explores his snivelling weasly side as Antonius, and Hathaway has a steely presence as the wife holding court - and hope - after years of her husband's absence.

Perhaps some of the pathos of the original is missing and Nolan sacrifices character moments that matter for visual scale and practical heft, but The Odyssey manages to right its course after some choppy waters to start.