Enveloping like the story of an aedo – played by rapper Travis Scott – the film is relatively faithful to the main episodes or songs of The Odysseyalthough it updates some aspects, such as the language, which is plainer.
Thus, Telemachus, played by a boyish Tom Holland, calls Penelope and Odysseus “mom” and “dad”, while some explanations about the motivations of the plot take on a more contemporary approach.
In this way, it is more economics than Helen’s flight with Paris that provokes the war, and it is exhaustion with violence, and not the winds of Poseidon, that leads Odysseus to take a path that delays his return home for another decade.
The detestable Antinous is one of the antiheroes, along with the dark, parricidal and masked Agamemnon, to whom Odysseus owes obedience, but whose authority he questions in another license from Nolan. The British Robert Pattinson plays Penelope’s main suitor with a performance full of nuances.
The film gives voice and criteria to the female characters, something that already happens in the original poem. Anne Hathaway stands out as a Penelope who is much more of a strategist than a submissive, while Helena, played by Lupita Nyong’o, rebels against the violence of men. Zendaya, as Athena; Charlize Theron, as Calypso, and Samantha Morton, as Circe, are other key pieces to guide the hero.
The director has been called a “woke”, both for choosing some actors of non-European descent and for giving a role to trans actor Elliot Page as the warrior Sinon, who deceived the Trojans. However, in one’s own Odyssey A gender-fluid character, the fortune teller Tiresias, appears, although with a minor participation in the film.
The version of The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan
British filmmaker Christopher Nolan opted for a star-studded cast for his long-awaited adaptation of The Odyssey. From Matt Damon to Zendaya, including Tom Holland and Anne Hathaway, they are all part of a film in which some characters differ from how Homer imagined them.
Matt Damon, a more heroic Odysseus
Homer drew Odysseus as a hero with a dark side, marked by ambition and unscrupulousness. Nolan retains some of those nuances, but enhances his heroic side. Matt Damon brings the honest insight that characterizes his career in a solid, if not exceptional, performance.
Anne Hathaway, the toughness and resilience of Penelope
The American actress is aiming for her second Oscar, again for a supporting character. He won the statuette for Fantine, in The miserable onesand I could repeat with this Penelope who weaves and unweaves with patience and more resentment than she can show, while her husband remains absent, the suitors consume her resources and Telemachus is more lost than he should be.
Tom Holland, a boyish Telemachus
It is the weakest performance among the stars of the cast. Stripped of the humor of Spider-ManHolland looks out of tune in a much more dramatic story than usual and plays a Telemachus who lacks the toughness typical of characters in monumental epics like The Odyssey.
Zendaya brings glamor to the goddess Athena
Zendaya’s elegance and beauty fit the character of Athena, Odysseus’ advisor during the 20-year journey that Homer turned into a great adventure. The actress naturally transforms into a goddess from the 13th century BC, just as she does as a futuristic warrior in Dune or like the girlfriend of a superhero in Spider-Man.
Robert Pattinson, impeccable as the traitor Antinous
The British actor fills with nuances a character who was already odious in the Homeric songs and who Nolan turns into someone even more detestable, cowardly and ambitious. He is a contender for the throne of Ithaca who does not hesitate to use any resource to make others face dangers on his behalf.
Lupita Nyong’o, the feminist nuance of Helen of Troy
Neither kidnapped nor subjugated: this is how Nolan presents Helen of Troy, played by Lupita Nyong’o, who also plays her twin Clytemnestra. The character tries to oppose her destiny within the limits imposed on her by Greek society and cautiously challenges the authoritarianism of her husband, Menelaus.
John Leguizamo, unrecognizable as Eumeo
Odysseus’s most faithful servant, along with Euryclea, has the almost unrecognizable face of John Leguizamo. In Nolan’s version, Eumaeus takes on greater relevance as the tireless defender of the king of Ithaca against Penelope’s numerous suitors.
Charlize Theron, pure beauty as Calypso
Charlize Theron’s beauty made her a natural candidate to play Calypso, the nymph who holds Odysseus for seven years on the island of Ogygia. Nolan set this scene in the White Dune of Dakhla, in Western Sahara.
Samantha Morton, the perfect witch Circe
The Circe that Homer imagined, capable of transforming men into animals, comes to life thanks to Samantha Morton in one of the most successful episodes of the film. Together with the confrontation against the cyclops Polyphemus and the encounter with Tiresias and the spirits of the unburied dead warriors, it provides the fantastic component that attracts Nolan so much.
Jon Bernthal and Benny Safdie, the kings who unleash the war
The kings responsible for the start of the Trojan War do not come off well in either Homer’s work or Nolan’s adaptation. Jon Bernthal—known for The Bear— and director Benny Safdie play Menelaus and Agamemnon, who gather leading Greek warriors, including Odysseus, to recover Helen, wife of Menelaus, supposedly kidnapped by Paris of Troy.