Film review: The Odyssey (and a ticket giveaway)

Christopher Nolan does what Christopher Nolan wants. Leading up to the release of the follow-up to his Academy-Award-winner Oppenheimer, the British filmmaker had to deal with the weight of expectations from his dedicated fanbase, but the scrutiny of the entire cinema-going audience. There is then bravery that, for his next project, he finally decided on his dream project of adapting the Homeric epic and shot it all with IMAX cameras (for the first time in history). A cynic would call it hubris. We are not cynics here.

Tackling Homer’s The Odyssey in this day and age requires some perspective. Because, regardless of what social media experts tell you, the text was always supposed to be a reflection of its times. In Homer’s age, it was a sign of a dying empire that betrayed its moral grounds, for the Coen Brothers, who perfectly adapted the story in their zany O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it’s a country breaking the chain from its dark present. The Odyssey is not just a swords and sandals epic that reflects a time long past; it’s a political reflection that Nolan, in a gentle stroke of creativity, turns personal.

The modern perspective is set right from the start with a bard (Travis Scott) about to tell the story of Odysseus (Matt Damon) and the Trojan War to the suitors of Penelope (Anne Hathaway). “A man, a face”, he starts. Scott, a rapper, is a natural born storyteller, but here constrained by the style of ancient performance. But before he can continue, he is stopped by Penelope, who doesn’t want the myth of her disappeared husband to continue to propagate and entertain the masses. Or, if you will, Nolan doesn’t want the old tale to influence men who will take it out of context.

One of these men is her and Odysseus’s son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), his dedicated old servant Eumaeus (John Leguizamo), and one of the suitors, Antinous (Robert Pattinson).

In classic Nolan structure, he jumps between Ithaca and the Odysseus return trip, with the Trojan war as its central focal point. Odysseus is a man of great morality, who slaps his string bow before firing an arrow to give the animal a fair fight. But after a decade of siege, he comes up with the horse plan and catches the Trojans off guard. The plan asks for a soldier to be betrayed, Sinon (Elliot Page), and the break from his moral code haunts Odysseus, who starts confiding in visions of Athena (Zendaya) for some sort of guidance.

On trying to take a detour home, Odysseus and his crew get lost in the sea and have to face the wrath of the gods for their actions. In every stop, more of his men die, destroying morale and further isolating Odysseus until he’s left alone on an island under the spell of Caliope (Charlize Theron).

Nothing in this story is new for anyone. Odysseus faces the Cyclopes, the witch Cersei (Samantha Morton), who turns his men into pigs, the sirens, and the land of the dead, where he answers for his actions to Sinon and Agamemnon (Benny Safdie). But Nolan doesn’t film any of these set pieces as grand and heroic. The weight of guilt permeates through the scenes in a way that also makes this a perfect companion to Oppenheimer. In a twist, Nolan portrays the monsters as complex, tragic figures whom Odysseus and his men threaten. Especially the Cyclopes, whose entrance, almost like a gigantic Dr Caligari, lit by the fire in his cave, is heartbreaking.

Morton’s Cersei is potentially the best female character Nolan has ever written, and hers is the best set piece of the film that purposely happens at a turning point in the picture. The turning to pigs is gruelling, almost like a Brian Yuzna nightmare that only falters for not going the distance (Nolan should’ve gone for an R rating in this), but it’s Morton’s affecting dialogue with Odysseus that brings back his morality to the right side, marking the turning point his character needs.

But the big question remains – is the large format worth it? Should you go and see it on the biggest screen possible? And yes, of course. Good luck trying to find a seat on IMAX, and there are no 70mm IMAX screens in NSW, but if you have a chance to catch at least the 70mm version, it’s worth it. The scope is breathtaking; it lets Nolan play with the isolation of Odysseus against the unforgiving background. It’s the closest he’s ever been to David Lean, even if he could never reach that level of mastery. Hoyte van Hoytema lights the scenes like a classic Hollywood picture, with deep blues in the night and bright scorching whites in the day. But even with the excitement of a large format, Nolan and van Hoytema don’t skimp on close-ups if they feel the emotional payoff is more important that the technical show-off.

Even when Nolan’s shortcomings are revealed, especially in the blocking of the fight scenes, something he never showed any interest in, it’s undeniable how much of The Odyssey works. The choice to have everyone speak with a generalised American accent is not an anachronism but a clue to Nolan’s intentions. This here is a charged political film with a complicated personal approach. Like the poem, it doesn’t try to find a solution or answers to our current state of affairs. That would be arrogant of him. To highlight our moral degradation while still ending in a hopeful footnote, just having more faith in humanity than we deserve.

Verdict: 4.5 out of 5
For anyone who still wants to be wowed by art made on such a large scope it feels like no screen could do it justice. Historical puritans, begone, like Homer wanted, this is one of the masses.

Ticket giveaway – The Birthday Trip

LSJ Online and Badlands have 10 doubles passes for the upcoming Australian comedy The Birthday Trip.

Three upwardly mobile millennial couples descend on a luxury farmstay to celebrate a joint thirtieth birthday. There’s a weapons manufacturer, an ABC development coordinator, a finance bro, a painter… the full spectrum of the Aussie elite. Chaos ensues. Infidelity, inequality, inebriation. Simmering social dynamics captures with an immersive reality-TV camera, before the trip culminates in one of the biggest stunts in Aussie indie cinema history. The Birthday Trip isn’t your typical Screen Australia-approved festival fare. This is a White Lotus in the Southern Highlands, a timely, sophisticated, hilarious film that dares to poke fun at the Australian middle cass and Aussie culture writ large. In cinemas 30 July. Watch the trailer here.

For a chance to win one of the double passes, email your LawID and postal address to journal@lawsociety.com.au with the subject line ‘THE BIRTHDAY TRIP’ before end of day Tuesday 21 July.