The Odyssey

This is, of course, Christopher Nolan’s masterful rendition of Homer’s epic tale about King Odysseus’s perilous, decade-long voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, with bits thrown in, in flashback form, from “The Iliad” and Virgil’s “Aeneid” just to keep you up to date on the 2800-year-old Greek backstory. All presented with awesome, textured visuals and throbbing sound design. Nolan is to be further commended for limiting the use of cheaper CGI or, Zeus forbid, 3D.

Matt Damon shines in the title role, and Robert Pattinson puts in an impressive take on the smarmy Antinous, chief among the suitors back in Ithaca seeking the hand of Penelope (Anne Hathaway, always good), the presumed-dead Odysseus’s queen. Zendaya appears as Athena, and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, though these are basically cameos. The cast includes Tom Holland as the king’s son, as well as Samantha Morton, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal and John Leguizamo. A nearly unrecognizable Elliot Page deserves a shout-out for his small but important part.

Aside: One of the most amusing aspects of this blockbuster is Fox Snooze’s outrage that Helen is played by a black woman, saying the film should be more “historically accurate.” It’s a MYTH, you morons, a story made up 2800 years ago! Gotta love it. Bottom line, it’s a remarkable cinematic achievement, overwhelming yet accessible, and worthy of its source (I’m not sure the general’s late-stage conversion to a rueful peacenik was stressed in the poem). You should see it, if only to understand what all the chatter is about. But it’s not perfect. Quibble time: I found it a tad irrelevant (Zeus’s Law?), and the fact that everyone is speaking in American accents was a little distracting. It’s safe to say that no one will ever make a better Odyssey, but it lacks an emotional core, and I suspect that, unlike Oppenheimer, two years from now no one will remember much about it. One more thing: It’s so loud that my Apple Watch warned me that it could be harming my hearing. Twice. (172 min)