Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' is visually stunning but emotionally adrift – review

Christopher Nolan's three-hour film, "The Odyssey," is a visually stunning but emotionally detached adaptation of the classic hero's journey, focusing on Odysseus's disillusionment and an anti-war message. While the film features impressive visuals and a strong performance by Matt Damon as Odysseus, it lacks genuine emotion and often feels uninvolving. The reviewer highlights the compelling portrayal of Cyclops and the effective "Circle sequence" with Samantha Morton as Circe, noting that this interlude better conveys the film's anti-war theme than the clichéd battle scenes. Despite a large and capable cast, including Anne Hathaway and Jon Bernthal, the movie's singular focus on the horrors of war leads to a "numbingly banal view of human experience," according to the reviewer, who suggests that the film misses the complex tragedy of Homer's original poem.