Movie Review: ‘The Odyssey’

08/26/2026 by Corrye Van Caeseele-Cook

Plot: An adaptation of the classic Homeric poem, director Christopher Nolan’s latest epic film recounts the tale of Ithaca’s king, Odysseus (Matt Damon). After ten years fighting the Trojan War, Odysseus and his men finally begin the journey home, a sojourn that will take another ten years to complete. Along the way Odysseus is beset by all manner of obstacles including the cyclops Polyphemus, giant Laestrygonians, Sirens, and the great whirlpool Charybdis. Meanwhile in Ithaca, Odysseus’ wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) must contend with suitors such as the devious nobleman Antinous (Robert Pattinson) who seek to claim the throne from Odysseus’ son Telemachus (Tom Holland). Yet to return home and save his beloved Ithaca, Odysseus may have to defy the gods themselves.

Review: There’s a well circulated fallacy in society that all art—whether it’s paintings, music, plays, dance, or cinema—is subjective. This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. If no art is objectively great, that means my pathetic scratchings on a cello are equal to the performances of Yo-Yo Ma or that the editing of my YouTube videos is on par with Thelma Schoonmaker work (Raging Bull, Cape Fear). The very idea that my output would be on the level of either one of those talented artists is patently ridiculous. While your experience with said art is certainly subjective, objectively great art must exist. Just because I think (subjectively) the works of Jackson Pollock are one step up from 1^st grade finger paintings, doesn’t mean it’s not objectively great art.

The same can be said for filmmaker Christopher Nolan. Whether you enjoy his movies or not, there is no question that Nolan has directed some of the most critically acclaimed and lucrative films of the 21^st century. From The Dark Knight, to Interstellar, to Oppenheimer, the man consistently delivers monumentally experiential storytelling that feels both profoundly epic and deeply intimate. Again, while your relationship with Nolan’s work is undeniably subjective, his films, by any measure of the cinematic medium, are objectively great works of art.

Bold, visually stunning, emotionally weighty, and intellectually thought-provoking, The Odyssey manages to be both a profound examination of the human condition and wildly entertaining. Christopher Nolan miraculously takes an almost 3000-year-old poem and its complex themes and makes them effortlessly relatable in 2026. It’s a magic trick worthy of Hugh Jackman’s “The Great Danton” from Nolan’s The Prestige. The Odyssey offers a startling degree of authenticity; a distinct level of verisimilitude that even I didn’t think was possible.

Every single cinematic facet of The Odyssey is a stunning triumph.

Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography is nothing less than sublime. This is the fifth collaboration between Nolan and Hoytema, and it isn’t hyperbole to say that he’s Nolan’s muse. Rarely in the history of cinema has a DP been able to execute a director’s vision with such precision and proficiency. Whether it’s the claustrophobic and horrific cave of Polyphemus, the sack and burning of Troy, or an earnest conversation between Penelope and Odysseus disguised as a beggar, Hoytema skillfully maneuvers between the intimate and the intense.

Hoytema’s cinematography dovetails elegantly with Ludwig Goransson’s pitch perfect score. The three-time Oscar winner (Black Panther, Sinners, Oppenheimer) rather than use a typical orchestra, instead uses various bronze gongs, bronze instruments, lyres, and even Albanian iso-polyphony folk chorals to evoke the setting of the Bronze Age. Goransson’s score in The Odyssey’s is so profoundly different than Sinners or Black Panther that I don’t think it’s an overstatement to call Goransson a musical genius. He’s as masterful as John Williams or Hans Zimmer and at only 41 years of age, there’s no telling how many astounding works lie in his future.

Academy Award winning editor Jennifer Lame (Oppenheimer) possesses almost the same level of synchronicity with Nolan as Hoytema does with the storied director. The duo cut through no less than 90 hours of material to craft a three hour epic. Yet there’s not a single shot that doesn’t service the story. Lame delicately crosscuts between timelines and fragments, which highlights Nolan’s pension for non-linear storytelling. This presents The Odyssey’s myth as a fluid memory rather than a straight chronological line. Two sequences in particular stood out to me. The first involved the scene where Circe turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. While horrific in nature, the fast punchy cuts give the audience a grasp of the danger yet leave the details to the imagination. (Honestly, I don’t know how the Hell they did that scene practically.) The second involved a conversation between Odysseus and Penelope toward the end of the film where Odysseus (in beggar form) recounts the atrocities of the sack of Troy. It’s masterful work.

Production designer Ruth De Jong and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick also deliver on a level I didn’t think was possible. One of the staples of any Nolan film is its authenticity. You BELIEVE you are in this world; a world of cyclopes, witches, monsters, and gigantic whirlpools. That’s due in no small part to the work of De Jong and Mirojnick. The sequence in Hades is some of the most stunning work I’ve ever seen committed to film. Not to mention the 40 foot-tall, 8,800 pound practical Trojan Horse. Again, these are two master craftswomen working at the top of their game.

You may have noticed a running theme by now when it comes to the people involved in The Odyssey. Every person involved is the best at what they do because Christopher Nolan attracts talent like the Sirens attract wayward sailors.

The same holds true for all the actors involved. Matt Damon carries this film on his shoulders for almost three hours and delivers one of the best performances of his career. The scenes where Odysseus is tied to the mast while his men sail past the Sirens are a masterclass in facial expressions. Damon’s Odysseus is a deeply flawed human being beset by the vicissitudes of life and haunted by his deception at Troy and the violation of Zeus’ law. Yet we root for him because the trials and tribulations he goes through, while extreme, are fundamentally relatable on a human level.

Tom Holland also delivers a career-best performance as Telemachus, Odysseus’s son and heir apparent to the throne of Ithaca. For those of you who think he’s simply Spider-Man, think again. His eventual reunion with Odysseus is gut-wrenching.

I was also in awe of some of the stunning supporting performances in The Odyssey. Samantha Morton’s witch-goddess Circe is in the film for maybe ten minutes but delivers one of the of the most nuanced turns in the entire movie. Elliot Page’s acting as Sinon, particularly during the Hades scenes, lives rent-free in my head. John Leguizamo steals every scene as Eumaeus, Odysseus’ faithful blind swineherd. It’s borderline Oscar worthy. Robert Pattinson also seems to be channeling James Woods’ Lester Diamond from Casino with his role as Antinous. Scheming, emotionally manipulative, and sporting snide expressions that make his face more punchable than Tucker Carlson, I absolutely LOATHED his character. You cannot wait for him to get his comeuppance.

However, it is Anne Hathaway’s Penelope who stands head and shoulders above anyone else in the acting category. Easily her best role since Fantine in Les Misérables, she’s absolutely the front-runner for an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category. A queen without her king, Penelope, is forced to endure night after night of vile suitors who see her as nothing more than an expedient way to the throne of Ithaca. There’s a specific scene between Hathaway’s Penelope and Holland’s Telemachus late in the film that showcases the grit of Penelope’s character but also the vulnerability of a wife who desperately misses her husband. Simply phenomenal.

And helming this sensational cinematic ship as always is one, Christopher Nolan. It’s one thing to have a singular artistic vision. It’s quite another to be able to translate that vision onto screen in a way that balances heavy themes with boundless entertainment. The Odyssey is a movie that couches its timeless thematic elements in a sword and sandal epic that keeps you riveted for 173 minutes. The Odyssey addresses the concept of home, that when you return home from an actual odyssey, is it the same way you left it? Is what you thought of as home now alien because you’ve been dramatically transformed by trauma? Are the people you left behind so vastly different due to the ravages of time, that they are virtually unrecognizable? The Odyssey also examines how violence, even in war, fundamentally changes you as a human being. There’s the mythical, heroic aspect of war that’s sung in songs and then there’s the stark, horrific reality of war. Indeed, there’s a constant tension between the stories people repeatedly tell about the hero Odysseus and the realities of the flawed human man.

To watch a Nolan film like The Odyssey is to fully surrender yourself into the hands of a master craftsman, secure in the knowledge that the story he will mold for you is an experience you will treasure in perpetuity. It’s a journey you’ll ultimately want to take again and again.

Without question, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey categorically proves what I contended at the beginning of this review. Namely, that objectively great cinema exists.

And The Odyssey is undoubtedly great cinema.

My rating system:

1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad

2 Straight Garbage

3 Bad

4 Sub Par

5 Average

6 Ok

7 Good

8 Great

9 Excellent

10 A Must See