There's nary a dull moment in the director's typically muscular, temporally complex interpretation, but despite a fine, bone-weary turn from Matt Damon as the wandering king of Ithaca, it's more sensually than emotionally felt.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection More than 70 years have passed since Hollywood last attempted a straight-up adaptation of Homer’s “Odyssey,” which is an unfathomable eternity considering both its standing as a foundational epic narrative — the hero’s journey to end, and begin, all hero’s journeys — and the industry’s tendency to recycle any halfway proven story material until it positively disintegrates. Is it the well-worn familiarity of the text that has protected it from complete cinematic exhaustion, or the great, daunting heft of it? Either way, making a full-tilt film of “The Odyssey” in the year 2026 is at once a job for the heedlessly adventurous and the staunchly traditionalist.
Related Stories
