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Emily Wilson: The “Complicated Man” Was a Lie All Along
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: A Spectacular But Shallow Adaptation, Explained Simply
Quick Summary: Christopher Nolan made a $250 million movie version of Homer’s ancient Greek poem The Odyssey. It looks amazing and has huge action scenes, but the characters feel flat, the story gets messy, and it misses the deep ideas that made the original poem special for 3,000 years.
What Is This Movie Anyway?
Imagine someone took the oldest adventure story in Western literature—Homer’s The Odyssey, written around 700 BCE—and gave it a modern blockbuster makeover with IMAX cameras, explosions, and a star-studded cast. That’s what Christopher Nolan (director of Inception, The Dark Knight, Oppenheimer) did.
The basic plot: Odysseus (Matt Damon) fights in the Trojan War, then spends years trying to sail home to his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland). Along the way, he battles monsters, visits the underworld, and deals with gods—or in this movie, sort of deals with gods.
The Good Stuff: What Actually Works
- Pure spectacle: Giant monsters, massive battles, burning cities, crashing waves—it’s like a Fourth of July fireworks show that lasts three hours
- Nolan’s trademark puzzle storytelling: The movie jumps around in time (past, present, future), but it’s easier to follow than Tenet or Inception
- Family-friendly enough: Teenagers enjoy it; no confusing dream-layers or physics lectures
- Unexpected bonus: The movie is making people buy Homer’s actual book! Translations are flying off shelves
The Not-So-Good Stuff: Where It Falls Flat
Important Point: Spectacle ≠ Story. Just because a movie is loud and pretty doesn’t mean it makes you feel anything.
| Problem | What It Means (ELI5) |
|---|---|
| No emotional depth | You watch people drown, burn, and die—but your eyes stay dry. Even the famous loyal dog Argos gets the "cute puppy" treatment but no real heart. |
| Characters are cardboard cutouts | Odysseus is just "grumpy guy who wants to go home." Penelope is "sad wife who waits." Nobody has real personality, jokes, or contradictions. |
| Dialogue is robotic | Characters either explain the plot ("My dad’s coming home!") or give fake-deep speeches ("Our age of bronze is collapsing…"). No one talks like a real human. |
| Noise drowns out meaning | Constant thumping, screaming, crashing—like a restaurant so loud you can’t hear your date, except the date is the story. |
How It Compares to Homer’s Original Poem
Think of Homer’s Odyssey like a great novel—rich, weird, funny, scary, and deep. Nolan’s movie is like a trailer for that novel—all the exciting bits, none of the soul.
What Homer Did That Nolan Didn’t
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Real women with real voices
- Homer’s Calypso gives a furious, funny speech about god double standards: "Male gods kidnap mortal women all the time, but when I do it, everyone loses their minds!"
- Movie Calypso (Charlize Theron): Just a pretty therapist who gives Odysseus drugs and listens nicely.
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Penelope has dreams—literally
- In the poem, she dreams of geese killed by an eagle, weeps because she’ll miss the attention of the suitors. Complex!
- Movie Penelope: No dreams. Just yearns for Matt Damon for no clear reason.
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Ordinary people matter
- Homer gives personalities to the swineherd Eumaeus (kidnapped as a child, hopes Odysseus will free him) and the grumpy crewman Eurylochus.
- Movie: They’re just "helpful guys with beards."
- Gods are weird and scary
- Homer’s Athena is a scheming war goddess. Zeus enforces xenia (guest-friendship law).
- Movie: Gods barely exist. Zendaya’s Athena is just a sad war victim. No Zeus at all—yet everyone keeps talking about "Zeus’s law."
Big Changes Nolan Made (And Why They’re Weird)
1. The Sinon Subplot (Stolen from Virgil, Not Homer)
- Who’s Sinon? A Greek spy who tricked Trojans into taking the Wooden Horse. In Virgil’s Aeneid, he’s a villain.
- Nolan’s version: Elliot Page plays Sinon as a heroic teenager drafted by evil Robert Pattinson (Antinous). Odysseus feels guilty for lying to him.
- Why it’s confusing: The movie tries to make this about "lies of the War on Terror/Brexit," but the logic collapses. Sinon would’ve died either way. The Trojans took the horse anyway in Homer. It’s a message in search of a plot.
2. The "Sea Peoples" Conspiracy Theory
- Real history: 19th-century scholars blamed "Sea Peoples" for collapsing Bronze Age civilizations. Modern archaeologists say: Nope—climate change, earthquakes, and civil war did it.
- Nolan’s version: Penelope wails "Our civilisation is under attack!" Odysseus promises "Bronze Age civilisation will rise again!" The movie builds a twist around a debunked theory.
3. Moral Whiplash: The Movie Contradicts Itself Constantly
| Action | When Greeks Do It | When "Bad Guys" Do It |
|---|---|---|
| Kill people with tricks | Good (suitors) | Bad (Trojans) |
| Take abandoned stuff | Fine (Trojans take horse) | Evil (suitors take palace) |
| Welcome strangers | Sacred duty (Ithaca) | Foolish (foreign lands = monsters) |
| Defy gods | Brave (blind Polyphemus) | Stupid (eat Sun’s cattle) |
| One-man rule | Great (Odysseus = king) | Terrible (Agamemnon = tyrant) |
Callout: The movie wants to critique war and give you a cathartic slaughter-fest at the end. It wants to honor xenia (hospitality) and show foreigners as monsters. It wants you to hate lies and cheer when Odysseus tricks everyone. Pick a lane, Nolan.
The Characters: Who Got Shortchanged?
The "Black Best Friend" Problem
- Zendaya (Athena): Barely there, no scheming goddess energy
- Lupita Nyong’o (Helen and Clytemnestra): Two roles, minutes of screen time, just "victim tableaux"
- Himesh Patel (Eurylochus): Anxious sidekick, dies for Odysseus
- Corey Antonio Hawkins (Telemachus’s mentor): Helpful beard-guy
- Travis Scott (Phemius the bard): Yells, pounds a stick, never sings or plays lyre—in a story about storytelling
Note: Race-neutral casting is fine. But giving non-white actors only "loyal helper to white hero" roles? That’s not progress—it’s a cliché.
Robert Pattinson Is the Only One Having Fun
He plays Antinous (the main suitor) as a slimy, charismatic villain. He’s the only actor who seems to understand: This is a ridiculous movie. Lean into it. He deserves an Oscar for "Best Performance in a Film That Doesn’t Deserve It."
A Serious Real-World Problem
Critical Ethical Issue: Part of the movie was filmed in Western Sahara—a territory illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975. The indigenous Sahrawi people have been displaced and oppressed for decades.
Nolan used their homeland as a "cool desert backdrop" for a movie about a war hero who sort of admits guilt. That’s not just tone-deaf—it normalizes occupation.
Why It Still Matters (The Silver Lining)
Despite everything, three good things are happening:
- People are going to theaters again — In the "streaming era," this got butts in seats.
- Homer is trending — Emily Wilson’s translation (and others) are selling like crazy. Kids who came for Tom Holland might stay for the poem.
- Humanities departments might survive — If a $250M blockbuster makes administrators think "Hey, classics are popular," maybe they won’t cut the Greek program.
Nolan studied English at University College London, where The Odyssey is still a required first-year text. He’s inadvertently doing PR for the humanities. Thanks, Chris. Seriously.
Summary: Should You Watch It?
| Watch If… | Skip If… |
|---|---|
| You want loud, pretty, mindless entertainment | You want emotional depth or coherent themes |
| You like "spot the actor" games (Damon, Hathaway, Holland, Pattinson, Page, Zendaya, Nyong’o, Patel, Scott…) | You hate movies that pretend to be smart but aren’t |
| You’re curious how not to adapt a classic | You care about Western Sahara |
| You’ll read the real Odyssey afterward | You expect female characters to have personalities |
Bottom line: It’s a popcorn movie wearing a toga. Enjoy the fireworks. Then go read the poem—the one where Calypso yells at Hermes, Penelope weeps for geese, and a swineherd’s hope breaks your heart.
FAQ: Your Questions Answered
Do I need to know Greek mythology to understand this movie?
Nope. The movie explains everything (sometimes too much). But knowing the original makes the missing parts more obvious.
Is it better than Troy (2004) or O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)?
- Troy: Dumber, but knows it’s dumb. More fun.
- O Brother: Actually understands the Odyssey’s weird soul. Coen Brothers > Nolan here.
Why does everyone have a beard?
Nolan’s Law: In historical epics, all men over 30 must have beards. It’s the "gritty realism" starter pack.
Is the Trojan Horse in it?
Yes! But it has no wheels, looks like a cheap parade float, and appears on the beach "as if dumped by drone." Homer’s Odysseus built it. Nolan’s Odysseus just… finds it.
Should I read Emily Wilson’s translation?
YES. It’s in clear, modern iambic pentameter (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM). First line: "Tell me about a complicated man." Nolan quoted it in interviews—then wrote a script where Odysseus isn’t complicated. Read the book. It’s better than the movie. Guaranteed.
Based on Emily Wilson’s review in the London Review of Books. Wilson is a professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and translated The Odyssey (2017) and The Iliad (2023) into English verse.
