During the press tour for his latest film, director Christopher Nolan cited Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation of The Odyssey as an influence on his interpretation of Homer’s epic poem. Wilson hasn’t returned the favor. In a negative review of Nolan’s The Odyssey in the London Review of Books (via The Guardian), Wilson criticized Nolan’s adaptation for lacking “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth”. The author, who is also a professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania, added that Nolan’s “Odyssey” “doesn’t have any convincing words.”
“I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity for these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights and create more believable characters. But The Odyssey is a combination of his usual grandeur and superficiality. “The vision of the film is too confusing, the characters are too underdeveloped, and while they’re very good at conveying the big bang and big giants, they fail to deliver on what’s half-promised in terms of big ideas,” Wilson said. A scathing review has been written.
“Nolan’s The Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem so great: a compelling story about time, memory, history, war, or the relationship between a warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends, and neighbors. There’s nothing there. It lacks psychological, emotional, political, and moral depth. The story structure is gimmicky. None of the characters have any convincing motivations. There are no sex scenes in their actions or words, and the food is all terrible. ”
Director Nolan praised Wilson during the Odyssey press tour, telling Empire magazine that he used the opening sentence of Wilson’s translation (“Tell me about a complicated man”) as a guide to bringing his Odysseus (Matt Damon) to life on the big screen. However, Wilson concluded that the Nolan film “would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”
Wilson previously spoke out about criticism of Nolan’s films in an interview with the Sunday Times, but acknowledged that the films had a positive impact on cultural interest in Homer and The Odyssey in general.
“The release of ‘The Odyssey’ remains something to celebrate,” Wilson said. “This blockbuster is bringing audiences back to movie theaters… Translations of ‘Odyssey’ are flying off the shelves, including mine… (and) perhaps this movie will convince some university administrators not to cut literature, language, and history departments.”
Audiences don’t seem to share Wilson’s frustration with Nolan’s The Odyssey. The film received an “A” CinemaScore during its opening weekend and became one of the year’s biggest blockbusters at the box office. The film grossed a whopping $90 million domestically in its second weekend of release.
“Odyssey” is now showing in theaters nationwide.
