Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey: A Dissenter’s View
I know I’m in the minority here. I really did try to like it. But Christopher Nolan has taken the wiliest, most delightful hero in Western literature and turned him into one more Nolan sad sack, trudging guilt-stricken through a gray and godless world.
Nolan chose to adapt Homer’s foundational epic into the dull, depressing plod of a sad-sack everyman wandering through an almost entirely gods-free landscape — and a dull landscape at that. (Universal Pictures / Syncopy)
Should I lead off with how much I hate Christopher Nolan movies in general, or how much I hate Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in particular?
I’m so aware of my hatred for Christopher Nolan movies in general that I tried sincerely to suspend that hatred in order to watch The Odyssey. Partly because the advance word was so full of praise, even from certain scholars of ancient Greek vouching for the film’s greatness, that I thought maybe Nolan had finally found the right material for him.
But really, I tried to suspend hatred for my own sake — I don’t want to risk having a stroke from sheer rage, after all, because I know everything Nolan does makes insane amounts of money and wins awards, and everything I say about him is lost in the tidal waves of love for his godforsaken cinema. I had to suppress such thoughts in order to stay in my seat for three hours to witness his latest effort.
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