Peter Viney's Blog

2026

Directed by Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by Christopher Nolan
Based on Homer’s Odyssey.

CAST
Matt Damon – Odysseus, King of Ithaca
Tom Holland – Telemachus, son of Odysseus and Penelope
Anne Hathaway- Penelope, wife of Odysseus, Queen of Ithaca
Robert Pattinson- Antinous, asuitor of Penelope
Lupita Nyong’o – Helen of Troy plus Cyltemnestra, Helen’s sister and wife of Agamemnon
Samantha Morte- Circe, a witch
John Leguizamo – Eumaeus, a blind swineherd
Zendaya – Athena, Goddess of Wisdom plus a young Trojan princess
Charlize Theron – Calypso, a nymph
Jon Bernthal- Menelaus, King of Sparta
Himesh Patel- Eurylochus, Odysseus second in command
Bill Irwin on set performer of Polyphemus, a Cyclops and a son of Poseidon
Elliot Page- Sinon, a Greek soldier
Benny Safdie – Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, married yo Clytemnesta, also older brother of Menelaus
Travis Scott-bard

We saw it at the BH2 cinema complex, and had dinner in the Real Greek restaurant before. I hadn’t made the connection, it’s just a change from the pizza places. Given the humus on the menu, it would be better named The Real Cypriot. They do know that. The menu notes it’s not a Greek dish but everyone asks for it.

Both my sons, and two of my grandsons are totally fascinated by Ancient Greece. Sadly the 12 year old, the one who most wanted to see it is disallowed by the 15 rating. His uncle was shocked at the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen, and frothed at the mouth saying Homer described her as ‘white armed’. A non-starter. Homer paints Helen as exotic, so very white compared to the suntanned Greeks. OK, so black would also be exotic. I couldn’t see the problem.

We were a party of five. As it finished, I asked my grandson, ‘Is any of it offensive to a Greek scholar interested in Homer?’ He said, ‘All of it’s offensive to a Greek scholar of Homer … but it’s a great film.’

Magazines are full of plot references. Was Ithaca the modern Ithaca? Where did this or that happen? The one I’ve experienced is Scylla and Charybdis, the sea monsters, who are said to be derived from The Strait of Messina between Calabria and Sicily. The ‘just’ underwater rocks off Calabria are Scylla with six heads, and the whirlpools out in the strait are Charybdis. I’ve been on that car ferry and gazed at the whirlpools. You can see in a wooden boat trying to pass between the rocks and the whirlpools, they’d be terrifying and dangerous.

There are four plot strands:

Penelope ruling Ithaca in Odysseus’ absence, pursued by lots of unsuitable suitors.
The end of the Trojan War, the Trojan horse section
The lotus eater. Odysseus on the desert island with Calypso, memory lost, before deciding to return home.
The journey, the odyssey with monsters

Nolan’s speciality is intertwining strands, as in Dunkirk where they’re in different time scales- the 20 minute flight of the planes interspersed with many hours for the soldiers on the beach, and the even longer journey of the boats from Weymouth. A connection is that this also has lots of, possibly too many, scenes of men racing down the sandy beaches to the water’s edge and clambering over the sides into rocking boats while enemies try to attack them.

Given six headed sea monsters, one eyed giants and witches with the power to turn men into pigs, it would be unreasonable to criticise illogicalities. Though one stuck out. Odysseus’s crew keep getting into trouble by going on to islands to seek food (sheep, goats, the Sun God’s cattle) because they’re starving hungry. In Homeric Greece, unlike today, the Aegean can’t have been overfished. They’ve got a boat. Why are they hungry? The sea must have been teeming with fish. I know Greeks are partial to a lamb kebab with a cucumber salad, but grilled fish is just as popular, if you can afford it now that it’s weighed when you order and priced by the gram of wet weight. All I can say is Homer (if Homer was one person and actually existed) needed a good editor to point out such inconsistencies.

Odysseus is played by Matt Damon, who was made to grow a real beard. He brings the serious edge of the man who has had to make decisions, as a result of which many died. The Trojan Horse starts it, but the classic is Scylla and Charybidis, where he makes the decision to avoid the whirlpool, where the entire ship would have been lost, and go close to the six-headed monster Charybidis, knowing each of the six heads will seize and eat one of his men. Six deaths sacrificed to save the rest. Damon plays his angst superbly, BUT the classic Odysseus is the archtype of the trickster. Yes, he disguises himself on return to Ithaca to fool people, but I felt the need for just a touch of more obvious devious cunning. An added few per cent of Jack Nicholson?

Anne Hathaway already has goddess screen status and carries over the charisma to Penelope, wife of Odysseus. I’ll be really picky and point out that her first appearance, behind the screen separating her quarters from the raucous drunken suitors, gets lost because her face is masked so she is hard to hear- only in that scene.

The Trojan Horse itself is a Triumph, or in sports car terms, a Ferrari, a beautiful prancing horse on its hind legs.

We get the horror of being cooped up inside the horse, sweating, falling on top of each other as it’s dragged into the city and erected. It was always hard to see why the Trojans would want the traditional oversized pull-along wooden horse. This is a work of art. Of course they want to display it. The Trojans test the interior by shoving swords through and the Greeks have to silence the ones who get stabbed. It’s such a far cry from the solid wooden overblown toy horse on wheels it’s usually portrayed as. When they climb down, stiffly, slash a few Trojan throats and open the gates, Agamemnon stands all in black in the middle as the Greeks rush past him. Cinematic reference? The full Darth Vader.

On the voyage, the first big special effect is the massive Cyclops in the cave, picking up Greeks, chomping on them and spitting out the helmets. The whole scene is edge of the seat total concentration.The Cyclops is the best SFX beast in the film.

Missed opportunities? I would have liked the Sirens to be manifest. Some gorgeous women rather than fuzzy shapes on the rocks.

People have said ‘Where are the Gods?’ Watch again. Athena (played by Zendaya) appears throughout in human guise talking to Odysseus. As we see at the end, when we finally see the full horror of the sack of Troy, Athena has adopted the guise of a young woman who Odysseus saw being executed. They call the sea god by name, Poseidon, and fear him. They also fear the Sun God and what he will do if they eat his cattle. But they don’t name him. my grandson says they’re wise because it could be argued as Helios or Apollo.

Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra are both played by Lupita Nyong’o. When we see her as Helen, with Menelaus, King of Sparta, one cheek is scarred, As Clytemnestra, she murders Agamemnon.

Homer got there first, but as you see from the above, the film brings out women as the victims of war. Helen, scarred, her beauty marred. Clytemnestra gains her revenge by killing Agamemnon. However the most powerful is Circe, played by Samantha Morton. She is the most memorable actor in the film to me, in spite of limited screen time. Yes, she’s terrifying, yes she feeds the crew then changes them into swine (morphing SFX of the highest order). But she gives her justification. She knows armoured men will rape and kill. As we see in Troy, she is right.

I thought Samantha Morton outstanding as supporting actress and Robert Pattison as Antinous, the most villainous leading suitor best supporting actor.

I think I’d have telegraphed Odysseus’s scar from the boar a little more.

For another cinematic reference, we thought the loyal servant left in Ithaca physically resembled Zatoichi- The Blind Swordsman in the 2003 film.

Most reviewers heard Telemachus’ use of “Dad” in reference to Odysseus as a scraping noise down the blackboard. Its not “an anachronism” as some say, because we must assume the Greeks had familiar names for parents. The mama / mum mum / pa pa / da da are sounds young babies can make so connect languages. A 19th century public school scholar might prefer pater but that’s Latin, not Greek. I suppose the question is formality and AI leaps in to tell me formal Ancient Greek is patir, modern is pateras, and informal is bampás. So we’re arguing formality within royal families, and I note that in his 70s King Charles was still referring to HM The Queen as mummy. I wasn’t annoyed by ‘dad’, but if I’d been scripting, I would have used father. There are some stiff bits of dialogue, but ‘Dad’ wasn’t an issue for us.

Nearly three hours? It flew by. The whole audience was silent, transfixed. No restless shuffling or chewing popcorn. If I’m doing story references, Odysseus and Penelope sailing off into the setting sun is somewhat Bilbo (or was it Frodo) sailing off at the end of The Lord of The Rings.

I suspect over-hyping affects the impression.Then you get headlines like ‘a flawless masterpiece’ from Tom Shone in The Sunday Times.

A masterpiece? Maybe. Flawless? No. Five of us saw it. Four stars was near unanimous, not five. I was the lone five star rating. I’ll take the majority vote.