Star Solid: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o. Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron
Director: Christopher Nolan
What’s Good: The philosophies inside and behind all of the pageantry
What’s Bad: The length!
Loo Break: With such a length, only at your discretion!
Watch or Not?: Overall, in fact!
Language: English
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 172 Minutes
User Rating:
The story is thought. It’s suitably modified to herald or heighten certain facets, like Zeus’ Law, a modification of the Greek concept of Zenia, that we must treat all human beings with respect, for even the humblest may be a god in disguise. Inside that, we see a mainly easy story of a warrior-sailor and his quest for home.
After the autumn of Troy, Odysseus (Matt Damon), king of Ithaca, sets sail for home—however the journey stretches into ten grueling years. The ocean god Poseidon, enraged after Odysseus blinds his son, the cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin), curses him to wander the seas, battered by storms and mishaps galore.
And so, along the way in which, Odysseus and his crew face one trial after one other. They escape, outwit, and resist various antagonists of assorted hues (we don’t need to have spoilers here for individuals who should be a component of this experiential drama!). They resist the deadly song of the Sirens, with Odysseus lashed to his ship’s mast to listen to their voices safely. They pass between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, losing men to every. The sorceress Circe from Aeaea (Samantha Morton) even transforms Odysseus’ sailors into swine before becoming an ally. Odysseus also speaks with the dead, including the blind prophet Tiresias (James Remar) of the Greek ‘underworld’ (not crime-based, but simply a realm to which a person goes after death), who warns him of dangers still to come back.
One after the other, Odysseus loses his companions and ships, until he alone survives, washing ashore on the island of the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), who keeps him for six years before he’s freed.
Meanwhile, in Ithaca, his wife Penelope fends off a horde of boastful suitors who assume Odysseus is dead and vie for her hand and his throne. Penelope, particularly, has to cope with the overtly sleazy and unscrupulous Antinous (Robert Pattinson). Odysseus’ and Penelope’s son, Telemachus, the prince of Ithaca, strongly believes his father is alive and searches for him or for any news about him.
Odysseus, on Greek King Agamemnon’s advice, now in disguise, finally reaches where Antinous’s men are set to kill his son. He kills all of them. A svayamvar-like (!!!) ritual is finally being held for the long run husband of Penelope, who publicizes that whoever can string Odysseus’s rigid bow and shoot an arrow in a particular way can have her hand. Naturally, only he can do this. After which, with Telemachus at his side, Odysseus slaughters the suitors in a bloody reckoning, reclaiming his household, throne, and family. But after this, again, just like the Indian king Ashoka the Great, following the battle of Kalinga, there’s something else in Odysseus’ mind!
The Odyssey Movie Review: Script Evaluation
The script is written to accommodate the mammoth canvas and yet must stand by itself. And it does, though the epic length, as said above, might have been curtailed. Sure, a few of the biggest classics made in Hollywood in addition to India are all lengthy extravaganzas, and possibly I felt the running time’s lengthiness much more since the PR guys of their “wisdom” decided to forgo an intermission.
The script, as per director Christopher Nolan’s temporary, also includes the numerous beliefs and philosophies from ancient Greeks and their mythology, lots of that are congruent with even present-day Indian concepts like “Atithi Devo Bhava” (a guest is like God), family first, and the futility of war and violence. Odysseus has even been traditionally described as cunning, devious, complex, intellectually sensible, and versatile, and Nolan makes him all that, along together with his humanity and the twist at the tip. Possibly, Indian screenwriters can have also looked Greece-ward for inspiration for his or her lost-and-found and father-son sagas.
The dialogues are neat, but too contemporary of their lexicon and spoken lingo. And that may be a bit like inculcating Mumbai’s jargon in a North Indian film or Urdu (which is ceaselessly done anyway!) in Hindu mythology. Guess this serves or heightens the ‘connect,’ but for authenticity, it was perhaps avoidable.
The Odyssey Movie Review: Star Performance
Matt Damon is all ‘glossy,’ if I could also be permitted this little play of words! He sparkles and glimmers in what may even be termed a tailor-made (“sailor”-made?) character and role for him. Without going excessive, he brings out the best nuances and emotions required for his complex role without seeming forced: a triumph indeed. The ultimate point: as he himself stated in an interview, “The films where I get to come back home to date as Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar, and The Martian. So I’m comfortable to maintain getting lost.” But he has truly ‘found’ a brand new dimension to his acting skill here.
The subsequent best turn, for me, comes from the all-too-brief cameo of Samanth Morton as Circe. Tom Holland is great as Telemachus, while Anne Hathaway and Charlize Theron shine too. As Antinous, Robert Pattinson is in form, though he reminds us of Hollywood (and Indian!) villains from the Sixties and Seventies. But possibly that was the temporary given to him! Himesh Patel, the one Indian within the forged, as Odysseus’ second-in-command, who is commonly nonplussed, is an ideal alternative. Possibly I can single out Bill Irwin as Polyphemus here, but the remainder of the forged—there can be an excessive amount of space consumption here to list even the important thing roles!—can also be great for his or her respective characters.
The Odyssey Movie Review: Direction, Music
That Nolan is a master of his craft was never unsure. But on this jump into the past (his Dunkirk had reached back only to World War II), he has ensured that he does no fallacious. Nolan has not only brought back his love for gargantuan storytelling but additionally kept in mind cross-cultural appeal and put loads of thought (within the deepest sense of the term) into the concept and execution of this legendary epic.
And yes, because the captain of the movie ship, his vision and technical finesse are beyond extraordinary.
Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson’s rating is beyond description. One can search the thesaurus for synonyms of awesome, fabulous, magnificent, inventive, consummate, unique, and at last pristine, and they’d all fit the Swedish composer’s work.
The Odyssey Movie Review: The Last Word
But for the length—as said, it felt longer due to the misguided absence of an intermission through the media screening—this voyage shouldn’t be missed.
4 stars!
Text The Odyssey Trailer
The Odyssey releases on 17 July 2026.
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