‘The Odyssey’: What Do Oscar Fates Have In Store For Nolan’s Epic?
After the near-ecstatic reviews from critics for The Odyssey, tiny cracks are starting to show in Christopher Nolan’s record-breaking juggernaut, and a small but vocal faction of the audience appears to be begging to differ.
Looking at Rotten Tomatoes, the ever-controversial aggregate site is reporting a stubborn wave of one- and even half-star reviews, calling it “super boring,” “long-winded and poorly written,” “one of Nolan’s biggest disappointments” and — more harshly — drawing unfavorable comparisons with the similarly themed Troy and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (both, coincidentally, released in 2004).
Of course, Nolan’s films have been famously polarizing since his reinvention of the Batman franchise back in 2005. Beginning with Batman Begins, Nolan felt the need to establish authenticity where it was never previously needed — and, for better or for worse — he’s stuck with that formula ever since (there may be plot holes, but the science is always watertight). It certainly paid off with Oppenheimer, which won seven Academy Awards out of 13 nominations for its portrayal of the tortured father of the atom bomb.
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Since Inception (2010), Nolan has mostly targeted mid-July for his big-budget bonanzas, and it’s a strategy that has worked surprisingly well for his Oscar campaigns. But after three days on release, it’s not immediately clear whether lightning will strike twice after Oppenheimer, especially with Warner Bros very provocatively scheduling Denis Villeneuve’s equally epic sci-fi franchise finale Dune: Part Three for December 18, almost five months to the day after The Odyssey.
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While nominations for Best Picture and Best Director — and sound, VFX and costume — are perhaps inevitable, even at this early stage, Nolan has never been consistent with acting awards: Which is what made Oppenheimer’s sweep so strong, with wins for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and a nomination for Emily Blunt. But given Nolan’s track record — don’t forget Leonardo DiCaprio’s snub for Inception — nothing can be said to be so certain for The Odyssey, in which Matt Damon stars as returning Greek warrior Odysseus.
True, there is a lot of love for its charismatic star over the years (as X.com user popboner has noted, “Hollywood has spent over $600m to get Matt Damon home,” twice from space and once from World War II). But despite three nominations for his acting, Damon won his one, and so far only, Oscar for Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting (1997) — not for his performance but the script he co-wrote with his old friend Ben Affleck — which could be all the impetus he needs to win if his campaign keeps up the momentum.
Damon’s Odysseus, however, is not a traditional action hero, despite the menacing nature of the film’s teaser posters, which show him going into battle, sword in hand. In fact, Odysseus is more like J. Robert Oppenheimer, a man tormented by the capacity he has to unleash violence. In that respect, The Odyssey is a deeply anti-war film, accidentally made all the more timely by America’s recent “excursion” into the Middle East, and Damon’s horrified expressions in the thick of battle do not exactly invite comparisons with, let’s say, Mel Gibson’s more Oscar-baiting leadership style in Braveheart.
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It’s the admittedly somewhat overstated literacy of the piece, if not the politics of it, that seems to be the issue rankling those drawn in by the action-packed trailer, not Homer’s 3,000-year-old poem. Indeed, the film’s pivotal scene — the use of a giant wooden horse to enter the fortified city of Troy — is anything but entertaining. Nolan shows it to be ugly, filling up with the bodily fluids of dying soldiers as the horse, their “gift” to the Trojans, is engulfed by the incoming tide. This and the continued mention of Zeus’ Law (one must always treat outsiders kindly in case they “might be gods in disguise”) may be closer to liberal Hollywood’s heart than the American public’s, given the MAGA support for ICE.
Speaking of Hollywood, the Academy loves a transformation, but Damon arguably doesn’t deliver one; his Odysseus is pensive and introspective, so much so that the sirens taunt him with his own dark thoughts that perhaps he doesn’t actually want to go home at all, having lost his sense of self-worth and integrity in the barbaric and brutal (but not especially hard-R rated) siege of Troy.
It’s a choice that works against both of Odysseus’ curiously flat witchy encounters — notably with Circe (Samantha Morton) and Calypso (Charlize Theron) — which don’t quite summon the requisite level of threat. In this respect, despite the surprisingly warm (for Nolan) Mediterranean cinematography, The Odyssey sometimes resembles a very expensive long-running Saturday morning ’70s TV show with surprise weekly guest stars (the same might also apply to Tom Holland, who plays Odysseus’ son Telemachus like Denny in The Room).
If we accept Damon as a shoo-in for a nomination, then Anne Hathaway, as his wife Penelope must surely follow; in a very well-judged U-turn from her recent performance in The Devil Wears Prada 2, Hathaway really brings some much-needed humanity to the film. She’s also the most credible female character Nolan has ever put on screen; while Odysseus is away pondering on a desert island, off his head on lotus leaves, Penelope is dealing with the reality of holding Ithaca together as it crumbles in her husband’s absence. This brings us directly to Robert Pattinson as her odious suitor Antinous; Pattinson has the right, sleazy stuff to make his skin-crawling scenes with Hathaway really work, sparking in ways that some of the other conflicts in the movie don’t.
Special mention is also due, though, to the almost unrecognizable John “Legs” Leguizamo as the blind swineherd Eumaeus, who stands out by miles in a film steeped in solemnity (even Odysseus’ long-suffering emo dog Argos cynically underplays the big emotional finish).
Nevertheless, the road to the Oscars is nearly as long as Odysseus’ journey home, and, at this stage, hunches are just that: hunches. “We can’t live by omens and sacrifices,” Odysseus tells his men. He might as well be talking about awards season.
