(M) ★★★★★
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Bill Irwin, Elliot Page, Benny Safdie.
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| "Verily, we have defeated the broom people, and taken their heads for our hats." |
No other story could be more fitting for the talents of one of history's greatest directors than one of the greatest stories known to humankind. And the fact that the resulting film is one of the greatest movie adventures of all time should also come as no surprise.
What's truly fascinating about Christopher Nolan's absurdly good take on Homer's The Odyssey is how Nolan has tweaked a millenia-old story and actually improved it. The story skips about fluidly and its pieces fit together perfectly. He repurposes parts of the story to make them resonate deeper and hit harder, somehow creating the definitive version of one of history's tales, reaching into the narrative to pull out themes that might not have been there to start with.
For those who don't know their Iliad from their Odyssey (ie. me), this is the story of Odysseus (Damon), who leads an army to Troy, hides in a giant wooden horse, defeats the Trojans, and then tries to go home, which turns out to be more difficult than fighting the Trojans.
Nolan's screenplay and directorial vision are impeccable. The way he positions the sacking of Troy in the story, the way he uses it to feed into the wider themes, the way he reconfigures the lotus-eaters and Calypso (Theron) - it's perfect. He folds elements of the original story into each other to make something whole and flawless from a story and thematic perspective. The Odyssey becomes so much more than an episodic monster-of-the-week story, and instead becomes a tale of how when we undo the niceties of society, we undo society itself, how when we turn gifts and kindness into tricks and war, we unmake the world, how when we treat the less fortunate with contempt, we insult the gods themselves. It's a powerful message in any time, let alone the present.
Nolan, aside from pulling together an utterly compelling story, delivers it on the big screen with sombre skill. The sun rarely shines in this world - it's an often overcast and grey world, but one that still somehow looks amazing. His preference for practical effects and real locations shines through too. There are obvious CG moments that are impossible to pull off otherwise (the cyclops Polyphemus and the many-headed monster Scylla for example) but where it can be done for real, he does it.
The sacking of Troy, for example, is one of those sequences that many directors would turn into a CG bonanza that makes it look like every other CG bonanza going 'round. If Nolan has used a lot of CG, it's unnoticeable. It looks like he built Troy and he burnt Troy. And every scene is lit with subtlety - this is definitely not Kubrick shooting Barry Lyndon by candlelight, but it give the same vibe, and it's beautiful to behold.
The cast is as exemplary as you would expect. Damon is his usual respectable, dutiful self. We tend to underappreciate his performances and status as an actor because his filmography isn't littered with flashy character roles or Oscars wins. But he's great at what he does, and he does it magnificently here, bringing gravitas and vulnerability to the role of Odysseus.
He's surrounded by stars delivering great but unflashy performances - Hathaway, Pattinson, Holland, Leguizamo, Bernthal, Theron, and Patel are all fantastic. No one outshines anyone, and all deliver.
Nolan's tale keeps the gods themselves at arms length, but embraces enough fantasy to make it feel mythological and enough reality to make it feel real. Despite its runtime, it never feels long, and there are odd moments of humour to leaven the heavy tone.
This is the best blockbuster of the year, and it's likely to be as big as Ben Hur when awards season rolls around, which it thoroughly deserves.
