(****)
“Promise me you’ll come back.” “What if I can’t?”
Back in ancient Greece, when Odysseus (Matt Damon), the king of the island of Ithaca, went off to fight the 10-year Trojan War against the city of Troy, he didn’t know if he’d return. That was a thought his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway), the queen, could hardly bear. When ten more years were added to her husband’s journey of war and self-discovery, his mysterious disappearance and her hardship became public lore. Vultures, in the guise of suitors, invaded her palace and stayed, intimidating her and their young adult son Telemachus (Tom Holland), who longed for his father who left when he was an infant. Where is this legendary warrior?
It’s a mythical tale passed down orally for centuries, then attributed to the poet Homer who supposedly recorded the folklore around the 8th century BCE, putting it in the form of 12,109 lines of poetry. It’s debatable whether there ever was a real Homer. What’s undebatable is that writer/director Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) has tamed this extravagant fable and its compelling mix of history and myths into a three-hour epic. It’s an all-encompassing experience that will dazzle all who love adventure, history, romance, drama and war stories. The character arcs are done with a flourish. The dialogue is often profound and only stumbles when 20th century words sneak into conversations. Odysseus fumes: “How long have I been stuck on this f—ing island?” It’s likely that a king in that age would use other profanities to express his rage.
King Odysseus sets off with his faithful warriors, helped greatly by his second-in-command Eurylochus (Himesh Patel). Along the way they stow themselves inside a Trojan Horse to get behind the walls of Troy. They’re there ostensibly to fight the enemy and retrieve the Spartan Queen Helen (Lupita Nyong’o), which pleases her husband Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), the king of Sparta. Nothing goes easy for Odysseus and his crew. They’re challenged by the witch Circe (Samantha Morton) and her machinations. Imprisoned by a gigantic cyclops. Forced, while on the open seas, to navigate around deadly maelstrom-like whirlpools, rocky straits and ferocious storms. In the end, the king himself must find his way home if he is to save his endangered Ithaca and beloved wife and son.
The original fable is non-linear with flashbacks, flashforwards, stories within stories and a mix of their reality and that of the gods who watch over or curse them, like Athena (Zendaya). For the first 25 minutes of the film, a taxing back-and-forth structure along with keeping track of all the characters, names, personalities and plotlines, is a daunting task for even those with a great attention span. Casual viewers may get lost, especially when it’s eventually streamed at home, where a bathroom break could disrupt comprehension. But Nolan has a trick for getting audiences to keep their eyes on the screen and not run to the concession stand for popcorn during the film’s long-running time. He filmed this extravaganza with IMAX Film Cameras (cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema) and shot the voyage and its destiny in six countries. This is a monstrous quest with big vivid images that no one will want to miss—not even for a minute.
The palace interiors (production designer Ruth De Jong) are regal, while the beaches, battlefields, and ships with striking red sails are breathtaking. The queen’s robes and her husband’s armor dazzle (costume designer Ellen Mirojnick). Stringing everything together in a coherent, discernible pattern is not an easy mission, but editor Jennifer Lame nails it. And Ludwig Göransson’s heady musical score elevates the drama to epic proportions. This is a spectacle unlike anything audiences could have imagined.
Nolan is more a cinematic wizard than a mere filmmaker. He’s creating a consistently mesmerizing moviegoing experience. You get caught up in his view of the ancient world so completely you leave the theater feeling like you just went to war. The action scenes are choreographed in ways that astound. The emotional intensity between the characters can be felt all the way to the back rows of the theater. The near-seamless, meticulously well-thought-out production, even with its jagged storytelling format, is a smooth operation. You lose all sense of time, and it feels like the story streams by in an hour when it actually takes 180 minutes to unreel. As a screenwriter, Nolan sifted through every possibility this gigantic tale posed and single-handedly whittled it down to one sitting. An extraordinary feat. Gladiator, the classic sword-and-sandal epic, had three screenwriters. Nolan went solo.
This is Matt Damon’s finest hour, as he commands his most demanding, leading role. He masterfully and intuitively connects with everyone around him. Erotically so with Charlize Theron as Calypso the nymph who’s toying with him. In an adversarial role as he clips the wings of the sinister, scheming suitors Antinous (Robert Pattinson) and Polybus (Corey Hawkins). He’s sensitive and compassionate toward the warrior Sinon, as interpreted by Elliot Page, and displays a reverent, brotherly affection for his blind servant Eumaeus, played by John Leguizamo.
Hathaway’s Penelope pines for her man. Holland’s Telemachus yearns for his dad with equal fervor. As formidable as the cast is, they’re all better when they interact with Damon. That reflects the strength of his stunning interpretation of the conflicted king. A man whose bravura is eventually eclipsed by regret, as manifested by his apologetic tone. He knows his massive crusade was a sacrifice that everyone paid.
An immersive theater experience. The kind that takes you on a journey you never enlisted for. Instead, you’re drafted, and you go. Wondering if this hero can find the way home.
Audiences who start this sojourn will finish it. Like Odysseus, they won’t stop.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_bKjZeJBBI
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.