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ReviewThe Odyssey movie review: Christopher Nolan adapts Homer for an epic anti-war masterpiece

Matt Damon anchors a visually stunning epic in which the women – Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya – outshine the men

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Matt Damon as Odysseus in a still from Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Photo: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures
James Mottram

4.5/5 stars

Christopher Nolan returns to cinemas with an epic for the ages. The Oscar-winning Oppenheimer director has made a film of such scale, it is little wonder he insisted on it being the first film to shoot entirely on large-format IMAX cameras. Nothing else would suffice.
An adaptation of Homer’s foundational Greek epic The Odyssey, this tale of monsters and men is another grand achievement by Nolan – a film of enormous ambition and near-flawless execution. As in his earlier films Interstellar and Dunkirk, Nolan returns to the theme of homecoming.

“It’s not always an easy thing,” mutters Odysseus (Matt Damon), the warrior-king who left his beloved Ithaca and his queen, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), to ransack the city of Troy. It has been eight years since the end of the Trojan War – and almost 20 since Odysseus last graced his land.

The Odyssey | Official Countdown Trailer

While Penelope is left to fend off greedy suitors – including Robert Pattinson’s conniving Antinous – Nolan gracefully unfolds Odysseus’ backstory.

Trapped on an isolated beach by the beautiful Calypso (Charlize Theron), his dulled memories come flooding back; thus, we learn of Troy and the horrifying challenges that he and his men, convinced they have angered the gods, must face as they set sail home.

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