I was not going to see THE ODYSSEY. I was not invited to the press screening and because I think Christophe Nolan is not even close to being on my list of favorite directors I didn't feel the need to see it until it streamed or when I had to do the year end voting.
Then Nate Hood and Hubert Vigilla raved and because I know what a film is based on their phrasing I decided to give it ago. What I found in their words was the feeling that I wasn't going to be standing up half way in to the movie and screaming at the screen.
An aside- the reason that I took Nate and Hubert's feelings to heart, was that the spoke of the film is such a way that they saw the film as whole. The didn't speak of pieces or moments or performances or as the greatest thing since yogurt but they spoke of thematic whole of the film. They were not trying to get a pull quote or maybe impress the director. They were simply seeing a film that hung together so I knew there was going to be something that would keep me in my seat.
I saw it either in 70mm, the theater I went to is one of the few to still have a 70mm projector (there was a poster saying 70mm), or digital. It was not IMAX. I say that because I could not see any image that would have been improved. I can not honestly say that I think it's worth seeing the film in IMAX for twice the price. Its the story that matters.
First thing I have to say is that anyone who is bitching about the film hasn't seen the film. Everyone bitching about woke or anything else doesn't realize that the amount of screen time for their complaints is so minimal (mere minutes in a 3 hour film) that its kind of like going to a show or a fair and hating the whole evening because one person bumped into you. If you have an issue with the casting or anything else, look at old Hollywood. Grow the F up and get out of your echo chanmbers and listen to what this film has to say about empathy.
The film is the story of the return of Odysseus from the Trojan war. It is told from his point of view and that of his family. Much of the film is a long flashback.
How is it?
I stayed to the end and I didn't walk out. That may not sound like much, but I will leave or turn off a film if I think its a waste of time. Time is important, and with a film like this that is three hours I can watch two other, better films. Life is way too short for shitty movies.
Actually I liked the film. I have issues, which is the point of this piece, but I liked the film. I think the film is best in the third act when Odysseus finally gets home. Almost all of this final part is so good that I suspect that most of the people who love the film have the deal sealed in this final section.
My feelings on the film depends, for most of it, upon at what moment we are at. I say that because I think that the film doesn't really work as a whole until he reaches Ithaca. Until then its a a film that bounces around why too much and never quite manages to really say anything that moves us because it is too busy bouncing around. It's only at that point do we really focus on characters who aren't fleetingly there.
The problem with the film is that Nolan, in his typical style, fragments the stry for most of the film. He is juggling a great many characters across several years of time. He's placed famous faces into many of them so there is an assumption that they are important, even if they aren't. Even at three hours there is a hell of a lot going on and Nolan simply pushes us forward.
Another problem is the editing is not what it should be. In a hour plus discussion with Hubert about the film he mentioned that the IMAX cameras only hold three minutes of film. That is probably the reason why some of the sequences seem to be overly edited or that some of the performances seem awkward. Several times during the first act I was fighting the film and wondering why some of the character driven sequences were shot like that. I finally just went with the spectacle and went with it.
An other issue with the "editing" probably comes from the script. Because Nolan has to keep the film moving he can't stop and let certain discussions be fully explored. Some of the discussions from the source material are chopped down or eliminated because what works as poetical discussion on the page or when listening to the words, has not place in a film that is action driven. We get bullet points about Zues' Law which is explained in a line or two, but which never fully flowers as it should because there are no words to back it up. Yes the notion of entertaining everyone equal because you don't know who may be a god is here, but ultimately it's stripped of its full weight because it's simply used as a plot point.
I am greatly bothered by how short changed so many of thematic elements are. Ideas old and new are marched through at speed. (Forgive me for not listing them all, I went to the film for me and not as a writer so I don't have the pages of notes I would have had otherwise.) The one point that hangs with me is in the crushing scene in Hell when Odysseus meets Elliot Page's character again (Page is excellent and may give the best performance in the film). At the start of thefilm Page's character is killed by the Trojans on the beach when they discover the horse. Page was left there to tell them that it was a gift. Odysseus knew he would probably be killed but left him there anyway. When they meet again in the afterlife there is much sadness, grief and anger. What should have been a slightly longer discussion is cut short witha couple of "meaningful" lines that are there to hand us the emotion instead of letting us feel it.
And that is a HUGE problem with the film, Nolan's characters don't, for most of the running time, show us we need to feel and instead has them recite a line or two. Anne Hathaway gives an absolutely nothing performance for the vast majority of the film because everything she says is pure exposition. It is not until she listens to Odysseus speak of the war and the cost, and all she does is cry, that she finally begins to give a performance. Nolan gives most of the cast crap lines so only people like John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Robert Pattinson (until he turns ridiculosly into Snidely Whiplash at the end), Charlize Theron and one or two others, are able to transcend them and make them more than functional. (Theron should not have been that good in a role that is ultimately exposition- however she creates a character and bleed emotion from absolutely a badly written role that exists onlt to get Odysseus to remember.)
I even have to take exception to Nolan's depiction of the hell of war, in thast it kind of sucks. Nolan has Matt Damon (who is an excellent hero) look meaningful while people are killed. There is no hell of war, there is Nolan phoning it in from Hollywood's films of long ago. What we see is no match for Damon's third act speech about losing his way and not believing home existed any more. What we hear in Damon's voice says more than then all the hundreds of extras running around like they are in an old sword and sandal film.
And for the most part the film does come together when Odysseus hits the shores of Ithaca. Finally the film feels focused because there is no need to cut away and we can go with it. Here at last the emotions and the speachifying are deeply moving and this is, I am pretty sure, why people fall for the film. In this final third we get action where the good are rewarded and the bag guys are punished. Though to be perfectly honest Pattinson's mustache twirling turn weakened the film for me, more so when the ending echoes too much the ending of Peter Jackson's Return of the King.
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the film, but I can't for the life of me see the people who are calling this the greatest dodad of the moment are talking about. I say that because if anyone other than Nolan had made it they'd cut its belly open and let them spill out in their columns. Is that great film in this one? Moments of it are but I don't think the whole thing is.
Is it worth seeing? Yes, but I wouldn't do IMAX. Frankly if you need a film to be only seen in IMAX there is a problem with your film because IMAX is spectacle noy story nor characters. (Beside Nolan knows this will be seen at home since he's spoken of a home video release- which last I checked isn't IMAX)
And if you do go see it, just don't expect historical accuracy (its a mess- its Hollywood) or faithfulness to the source (trust me stuff is missing). Just take it for its own thing and go with that just be patient for the third act.
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