The new movie “The Odyssey” begins with a title card that reads: “In a time of apparent magic …”
Your magician is director Christopher Nolan, who also wrote the screenplay based on the ancient Greek tale told by a number of poets, but primarily by Homer in his epic poem of the same title as the film.
Homer’s work is part of a long-standing tradition of oral storytelling and exists alongside his “The Iliad,” which precedes “The Odyssey,” as important examples of spoken narrative. Both were eventually written down. The ancient Phoenicians are credited with the first alphabet, but the Greeks caught up.
“The Odyssey” is about the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus, who is also known by the Latin variation Ulysses, and his journey home after the Trojan War, which lasted 10 years. His travels to return to Ithaca take an additional 10 years, during which time he encounters many dangers. The lives of all of his crewmen are also at risk. Troy has long been thought of as being part of what is now modern-day Turkey. Ithaca is a Greek island located in the Ionian Sea, off the northeast coast of Kefalonia and to the west of continental Greece.
During Odysseus’s long absence, he is presumed dead, which is based on Homer’s writing. This compels his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with 108 bitter, angry, and demanding suitors all competing for the supposedly widowed Queen’s hand in marriage. The motion picture is based on the translation by Emily Wilson and is playing in theaters.
Nolan thrusts his moviegoing audience quickly and without detailed introduction into the story. At the very start of the picture, a bard named Phemius, played by rap artist Travis Scott, is in a banquet hall surrounded by the suitors and introduces the tale of Odysseus (acted by Matt Damon), Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and Telemachus (Tom Holland). For Nolan, Phemius exemplifies the oral tradition of storytelling by the Greeks. The Trojan War is over and Penelope and Telemachus are anguished about the missing king.
Nolan unreels his interpretation of “The Odyssey” in non-linear fashion. The story moves back and forth through the two decades linked to Odysseus, his family, and his involvement with the brutal and bloody siege of Troy and his extended seafaring attempt to return to Ithaca.
In a flashback, the Trojan Horse makes its first appearance, like a beached whale, half-buried on the sandy edge of the sea, not unlike the Statue of Liberty in 1968’s “Planet Of The Apes.” The horse-like statue looks anguished and is watched over by a young Greek soldier named Sinon (Elliot Page), who is a character not from Homer, but rather from Virgil’s “Aeneid.” Eventually, the Trojans will bring the horse, in which some Greeks have secreted themselves, into Troy. The ingenious plan is for the hidden soldiers to open the gates of the city and attack the Trojans and win the war. Of course, the Greeks had united years before to bring Queen Helen (Lupita Nyong’o) back to her husband, Sparta’s King Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), from her romantic sojourn with the handsome Trojan named Paris. In folklore, Helen and Paris are two of the most beautiful people imaginable.
Odysseus, who will slowly lose some memory of his birthright and begin to doubt the importance of the deadly war, begins his odyssey back to Ithaca. It is here that Nolan plays with the mythology of the tale, with some of the escapades more interesting, gripping, or entertaining than others. There are too many stops on the journey. Odysseus’s men do a lot of running away from people and “things.” Nolan often cuts away from characters who are speaking while they are in the middle of a sentence.
Weakest sequences are the many overly extended confessional scenes between Odysseus and Calypso (Charlize Theron), a nymph he encounters. Best is his visit to the cottage of Circe (Samantha Morton), a witch and goddess who has the ability to turn men into pigs. Make of that what you will. The talk sessions with the goddess Athena (Zendaya) lack enough of the required energy, but they do impart information. The Cyclops (Bill Irwin) is a missed opportunity and is obviously in the movie to wring some laughs from and add some terror to the goings-on.
The acting is all over the place. Speech cadences and vocal strengths depend on the nationality of the performer. Like Hollywood costume adventures of old, words seem to matter less than deeds. The word daddy (first verbalized in the year 1500) is spoken, as is the crude Americanized F-word. Outstanding performances are delivered by Damon, who is called upon to be a brooding hero as well as an action star; Hathaway, especially in the closing 30 minutes; Morton and the meal she concocts, and John Leguizamo as the blind Eumaeus, who is Odysseus’s faithful servant.
Of special note, Nyong’o makes more of an impression as Helen’s sister Clytemnestra than she does as Helen. In truth, Helen isn’t in the movie all that much. Also attention-getting is Robert Pattinson, who is the chief suitor. We learn that Zeus’ Law requires that guests must be treated with respect, as well as given food and shelter. The “guests” in this case are Penelope’s many suitors. Pattinson’s sniveling performance as the bitter and scheming Antinous is attention-getting and fun to watch. I also liked Himesh Patel as Odysseus’s loyal second-in-command. His performance exudes perfect deference.
Hoytte van Hoytema’s sparkling cinematography is a superb high point. The music by Ludwig Goransson is never obtrusive, which is a welcome element. Less good is the pacing. Repetition sets in, and some scenes run on too long. The middle of the picture settles into a dull rhythm that became something of a rut. At the 115-minute mark of what is a 173-minute running time, I was compelled to check my Indiglo wristwatch. The dial’s soft green glow indicated to me that Nolan needed to perk things up. The strong visual appeal aside, the shifting back and forth between eras became a sluggish problem. Fortunately, he corrected his film’s energy for a wallop of a finish. Ultimately, “The Odyssey” is a good adventure yarn, but it isn’t quite a movie for the ages.