Since 2023, Christopher Nolan has become a movie star in his own right. The writer/director won his first Oscar with Oppenheimer, his first movie since The Dark Knight trilogy to garner almost $1 billion at the box office and the respect of film lovers around the world. In that span, he also became president of the Directors Guild of America, making him one of Hollywood’s most important figures behind the camera. At the height of his career, his options now seem limitless. Yet, as often with Nolan, he always tries to better himself and temper his inner critic.
Enter: The Odyssey, a three-thousand-year-old epic depicting the years following the Trojan War through the eyes of Odysseus, the man who ideated the Trojan horse and brought the city of Troy to its knees on behalf of Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus. An epic this far removed from our time, spanning two decades and following a plethora of characters, is a challenge of monstrous proportions. Yet, if there was anyone who could tackle it, it would be Christopher Nolan, and tackle it he did, crafting one of the most spectacular films this century with the power of practical effects, IMAX cameras, and a cast and crew with a unified vision. While he may not be at his boldest or most profound here, he is at his most refined. And that is a dangerous combination for a man with this high of prominence and pedigree.
Nobody else is doing what Nolan is right now. One of The Odyssey’s shining qualities is the craftsmanship in its set pieces and performances. Nolan made everything feel as tangible and tactile as possible, rather fitting for a man who has reignited the flame for film prints and the IMAX format. The team he brought together, from the ensemble cast to the music, sound, lighting, and cinematography, is near-irreplicable. They form a symphony of performances bearing a moment in the spotlight, often coming together to create some of the film’s most resonant themes and intense sequences. The pacing, despite feeling overly methodical in the film’s first half, picks up speed in its latter half and does not hold back, ending in a brilliant release of tension and buildup that makes even its most monotonous moments feel worthwhile.
And this is nothing new from Nolan. His previous film, Oppenheimer, follows a similar structure and turns the same release valves. Yet The Odyssey operates differently enough to give some nuance and depth to the story it tells. This comparison reveals itself in the film’s wider discourse, as both films explore a similar narrative theme about the relationship between a maker, their creation, and the consequences that follow. This time, Nolan uses The Odyssey to explore what comes after: the winds of change that come after the calm and the storm.
Odysseus, like Oppenheimer, is portrayed as a man of great intellect. Nolan draws audiences to this parallel to show how two people from entirely separate eras of human civilization could bear and tackle such similar burdens as entirely different men. Because, unlike Oppenheimer, Odysseus deals with the ramifications of the Trojan War as it happens. He feels a heavy burden the moment he befell Troy and unleashes ten years of pent-up vengeance upon the city. His return trip home is an escape from that burden, using his leadership to overwrite his betrayal of the gods. But his story cannot be rewritten, and the events that follow depict a man’s unrelenting ignorance of the world he created before making peace with himself, his family, the people he once called friends, and the place he once called home.
As riveting as the journey is, the parallels between it and Oppenheimer’s leave a desire for nuance. What it gains by taking a different path, it loses by feeling similar to what came before. Ultimately, The Odyssey is a culmination of everything Nolan has crafted for us in his career. The boundless love from Interstellar, the intellectual gamesmanship from Oppenheimer, the action set-pieces from The Dark Knight, the time jumps from Memento — it all blends into what, in truth, feels more like a “greatest hits” album than a new entity. It certainly has its own identity, from the way it tells Odysseus’ journey home by jumping between the present and a recounting of events to the love that drives him to return home and make peace with his actions, but never enough to hold its own. It’s a real shame for a movie that feels almost unparalleled in its visuals and narrative tension, because it deserves to be seen by those willing to experience something made for the biggest screen possible.
For many, The Odyssey stands on its own as a testament to why movies, and the theaters we experience them in, remain a cultural touchstone: a place of community and shared experience. It also reinvents and coalesces what has made Nolan such a dominant voice for the film industry in the twenty-first century. For some, it may feel more redundant or derivative of his other works that keep elements separate from one another, but this was Nolan’s opportunity to stir the pot, mix in all the elements from years past, and see what came of it, all while adapting one of Homer’s greatest epics with a great ensemble cast and even greater production team. So this may be Nolan at his best, yes, but a lack of narrative nuance often overshadows his directing prowess. His movies herald why style can be more important than substance, but his best works balance both. Oppenheimer had both, but The Odyssey lacks the adaptive nuance to leave as raw a mark, even when its protagonist’s journey to return home remains steadfast and pure in the best of ways.
Photo credits: Melinda Sue Gordon, Universal Pictures, Syncopy
© Creative Insight 2024
