‘The Odyssey’ is well worth the journey

MANILA, Philippines — The movie starts with someone telling a story. And inside that story were many more stories. This is, after all, the story of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, and Homer’s Odyssey is composed of more than 12,000 lines. If that were not enough, Virgil’s Aenid was also thrown in for good measure.

With so many moving parts, it was no mean feat for director Christopher Nolan to weave it into a coherent whole.

But for a film that is driven mostly by narrative, it is exceedingly well-acted. Credit that to the A-list cast, but also to Christopher, who always manages to bring out the best in his actors. “Oppenheimer” (2023) and “Dunkirk” (2017) should be more than adequate testament to that.

Christopher is an expert storyteller, but one would need some familiarity with the original poetry to quickly follow the events. I am an English literature major and had studied Joyce’s English translation assiduously; others with different backgrounds may find it a bit more challenging. It also doesn’t help that the movie is non-linear. But some half an hour into the movie, the storyline will somehow begin to meld.

For the initiated, no spoiler alerts are necessary, but to others, this review will have to be more circumspect. Suffice it to state that, at almost three hours, it takes some time to get there. Never fear, though; with so much spectacle going on in Homer’s (and Virgil’s) magnum opi, dull moments hardly exist.

The superb Matt Damon is the lead character, supported by a cast that reads like a “who’s who” in contemporary Hollywood: Anne Hathaway as Odysseus’ queen Penelope; Robert Pattinson as the suitor Antinous; Tim Holland as Telemachus, the heir apparent; Charlize Theron as Calypso; John Leguizamo as Eumeus; Zendaya as the goddess Athena; Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy; and a host of other perennial supports and characters giving highly committed performances.

Visually, “The Odyssey” is a feast for the eyes; “stunning” does not even begin to describe it. Shot entirely on IMAX 70 millimeter Kodak film stock, the higher resolution and more vivid colors — coupled with a state of the art sound system — make the experience profoundly visceral, especially in the parts where vast landscapes, sea vistas and even close-ups are shown. Verily, there is much to be said in favor of film versus digital movies, much like how compact discs and even lossless music streaming cannot reproduce the warmth and feel of analog vinyl.

Perhaps the greatest difference that director Christopher Nolan imbued in his version of ‘The Odyssey’ is that, without losing sight of the fact that the Odyssey was one of the greatest epic tales of all time and should — must! — be portrayed as such, he made a deeper character study of all the protagonists and antagonists, much more than earlier versions, which mainly stayed on the adventure side of the story. It lends the movie a layer of soul and personality not present in the others.

But of course, high definition is nothing without good camera work, and Swedish Hoyte van Hoytema, Christopher’s favorite, did not disappoint. The camera stayed still when grandeur was called for, but moved when kinetics were required, always restrained and tasteful, no fancy movements for the sake of movement.

(I must admit that, in the development of my movie “Mamasapano” (2022), I studied his work in “Dunkirk.”)

There are many iterations of the epic, but I have only seen one other (the European-made one from 1997 starring Armand Assante, Greta Scacchi, Isabella Rosellini and Vanessa Williams, among others), and while done a score and 10 years ago, it does not suffer in comparison. But the said work is more chronologically by-the-book (so to speak), which may be good or bad, depending on your inclinations, but the special effects are still convincing even by today’s standards.

Christopher takes more liberties with the original, not only in linearity but also in the depiction of characters, creatures and events. The Cyclops in this new one are actually quite sympathetic, not an out-and-out monster but a victim of desperate thieves who are Odysseus and his crew; Calypso is also not a selfish seductress but a demi-goddess who genuinely falls for Odysseus, but reluctantly lets his return to his family in the end. Scylla (the multi-headed monster) only makes a brief appearance, and strikes me as resembling one of those tentacle hentais in Japanese porn); while the Trojan horse is shown not as a toy-looking one with wheels, but ominously half-buried in the sand, and on which the Trojans exerted heroic efforts to bring within the walls of Troy.

Finally, the latest Odyssey merely danced around Homer’s original version of Circe, the sorceress, with whom Odysseus was supposed to have an affair.

But perhaps the greatest difference that Christopher imbued in his version is that, without losing sight of the fact that the Odyssey was one of the greatest epic tales of all time and should — must! — be portrayed as such, he made a deeper character study of all the protagonists and antagonists, much more than earlier versions, which mainly stayed on the adventure side of the story. This lends the movie a layer of soul and personality not present in the others.

The investment in time and money (with tickets costing almost a day’s minimum wage) may be high, but “The Odyssey” is a trip one must take, for it is a movie well worth the journey.