Christopher Nolan’s colossal retelling of the epic The Odyssey, clocking in at 2 hours and 52 minutes has a bit of everything– big stars, a big plot chock full of all kinds of interesting vignettes and episodes producing non-stop action, the first movie ever made totally in IMAX, good acting, absolutely no CG (yes those huge number of men dragging the Trojan horse into Troy and really some of the 1500 extras in this film). And in total. IMAX everything is so big and loud you feel like you are actually in the film, or at least it is all happening right in the Regal theater where you are sitting. The colors are brighter, the mood is darker, and the pathos and tension keep building and building. There are a few odd things about this take on the epic. Interesting bits are left out, for instance where Cyclops asks who poked out his eye and Odysseus exclaims ‘no one’!, and then the Cyclops runs out of the cave complaining to entirely deaf or non-existent ears— ‘No one has poked out my eye’.
More important is the end of the film– where is the final love scene between Penelope and Odysseus? Why does the disposing of ne’er do well suitors take the form it does in the film compared to the original text itself. This movie quite necessarily involves a lot of flashbacks, and yet it does not feel disjointed. I was pleased to see due attention being paid to some of the salient and most poignant small details, for example why both his old dog and his older childhood nurse recognize Odysseus for who he is , the latter base by a tell tale scar, rather like the tiny figure of Athena by which Penelope gives to Odysseus
Despite the complaints in advance about some of the casting, the only one I thought did not work very well is having Lupita N’Yongo play Helen of Troy. She’s a fine actress and attractive too but she is hardly a Greek beauty whose ‘face could launch 1,000 ships’. Consider the bust of the goddess Athena…..
While Zendaya hardly looks like Athena, at least she presents a likeable person protective and instructive of Odysseus. One of the more interesting sub-themes in the movie is Odysseus being willing to defy the gods in order to do what he views as right. The Helen of Troy story reveals how the issues of honor and shame undergirds the whole story. Without question is a major motion picture and I will not be surprised if it wins Best Picture and a slew of other Oscars.
English (US) · 