Since he assaulted the zeitgeist of the cinema with his directorial debut Memento (2000), Christopher Nolan has been creating films with more poignancy and heft than most of his contemporaries have produced collectively. From the early days of his reinvention of the super hero film with Batman Begins in 2005, through the exploration of topics with historical and emotional importance, such as Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023), each release from his creative canon has hit more or less on target both commercially and critically. Now, with his new film, an adaptation of The Odyssey brings Homer’s mythic tale of one man’s treacherous trek home following the fabled Trojan War as possibly one of the most majestic cinematic achievements of the current age of cinema.
Following the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus (Matt Damon) spends a decade attempting to return home to Ithaca where his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), continually fends off suitors attempting to marry her to wrest control of the kingdom for themselves. Meanwhile, Odysseus and Penelope’s son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), sets sail in a desperate attempt to learn something of his father’s whereabouts before the kingdom falls into complete disarray.
Throughout the journey, Odysseus and his men encounter a variety of obstacles sent by angry gods to keep them off course that they must overcome to simply get a little closer to the next perilous predicament. Students of the classic epic poem will be delighted that Nolan covers all of the seminal moments of Odysseus’ journey, while devotees of Nolan’s work will be similarly enthralled by the writer/director’s non-linear approach to telling the story. In typical Nolan fashion, the film unfolds from the middle and then reaches back in time to give the viewer background while revisiting the earlier moments in the film in an organic way that never feels jarring or forced. To that end, it is a triumph of Nolan’s writing and the editing provided by Jennifer Lame that allows the nearly three-hour running time to fly by from scene to scene while maintaining a hefty amount of anticipation for the film’s absolutely astounding climax that concludes the hero’s epic journey.
As Odysseus, Damon is the consummate adventure hero. Like Nolan, this might perhaps be the best work of the actor’s more than impressive career. Similarly, Hathaway and Holland deliver equally explosive performances as a fractured family desperately trying to reconnect. Throughout the film, every actor to grace the screen also delivers performances that may also be considered the best of their individual careers. Even a seemingly peripheral character such as Elliot Page’s Sinon is afforded attention that not only enhances the actor’s performance but pushes the depth of the scenes affected with far more weight than they might have had otherwise.
“The Odyssey.” Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon – © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Apart from the superlative performances throughout, the film is bestowed with excellent work from all of the creative participants involved. Ludwig Göransson epic score hits the right notes and perfectly accents the story as well as the elegant cinematography provided by Hoyte van Hoytema. Working with the limited elements that were present during the time period as well as setting a large part of the film on an actual ship upon actual water, the work of production designer Ruth De Jong, art directors Samantha Englender and Andrew Palmer, set decorators Larry Dias and Gene Serdena, as well as costume designer Ellen Mirojnick all mesh perfectly to create a flawless filmic tapestry of a tale that proves a visual feast from beginning to end.
While some fans of Christopher Nolan may have their own favorites from the filmmaker’s filmography that they may ranks amongst his best, The Odyssey ultimately feels – at least for now – like the film Nolan’s career has been leading to since his debut with Memento. It is, at this point, his masterpiece.
| Producer: | Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan |
| Release Date: | July 17, 2026 |
| Running Time: | 172 minutes |
| Starring: | Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya, Charlize Theron |
| Writer: | Christopher Nolan |
| MPAA Rating: | R (for violence and some language) |
| Director: | Christopher Nolan |
| Distributor: | Universal Pictures |
| External Info: | Official Site / TikTok / Facebook / Instagram / X (Twitter) / #TheOdysseyMovie |
