University of Pennsylvania professor and classicist Emily Wilson has issued a scathing critique of Christopher Nolan’s $250 million film The Odyssey
, arguing the script lacks emotional depth and strips the protagonist of his complexity. Despite the film’s box-office success, Wilson contends the adaptation replaces Homer’s wily hero with a simple action hero
.
The friction between the source material and the screen is stark. Christopher Nolan previously credited the opening line of Emily Wilson’s translation—Tell me about a complicated man
—as a shaping force for his epic. However, in a 4,000-word review for the London Review of Books, Wilson argues that the resulting film is an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display
with minimal narrative depth.
The Erosion of a Complicated Man
At the heart of the critique is the transformation of Odysseus. In Homer’s epic, the character is a survivor and manipulator whom readers both admire and distrust. According to NPR, Wilson views the film’s version of the character—played by Matt Damon—as someone who is not required to be smart
, but is instead defined by anxiety over his role in the Trojan War.
“We need to have a protagonist with detailed, believable motivation. [But] these desires seem stripped from Odysseus. He doesn’t seem to want food. He doesn’t seem to want sex. What does he want?”
Emily Wilson, University of Pennsylvania professor
Wilson points to specific narrative failures, such as the encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus. While the original poem features a clever ruse where Odysseus identifies himself as No Man
to save his crew, the film renders the Cyclops a puppet with no wits
, removing the need for the protagonist to outsmart him. This shift, Wilson argues, turns the wiliest hero in Western literature into a guilt-ridden grunt
.
Diminished Roles and Muddled Themes
The critique extends to the film’s supporting cast and thematic execution. Wilson argues that the female characters are severely reduced; Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, is described as having no dreams
and existing only to yearn for the protagonist. Calypso is reimagined not as a goddess delivering an operatic speech on divine double standards, but as an unpaid therapist
treating Odysseus’s PTSD with drugs.
The film’s race-neutral casting, featuring actors like Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, and Himesh Patel, also faced criticism. Wilson asserts there is nothing progressive about the choices, claiming these actors are relegated to roles that primarily provide aid to the white protagonist.
Beyond characterization, Wilson finds the film’s engagement with xenia—the ancient Greek code of hospitality—to be contradictory. She notes that the film treats deception as bad when used against certain characters but good when used by others, leaving the moral implications to spin in an epic whirlpool
without a grounding in human experience.
The Cost of Self-Writing
A recurring point of contention is Nolan’s decision to write the script himself. Wilson suggests this was a mistake, stating that hiring a professional scriptwriter would have solved many of the film’s issues. She specifically targets the dialogue, calling it abysmal
.
Despite these searing critiques, Wilson maintains the film is still worth seeing
because of the amazing
star-studded cast and the questions it raises about violence and deception in the modern era. However, she notes a disappointing lack of divine presence, suggesting the gods are only implicitly present through sound effects like thunder rather than as active characters.
Cultural Warfare and the ‘DEI-fication’ of Homer
This cinematic clash mirrors a larger, more toxic debate surrounding Wilson’s own work. As the first woman to publish a full English translation of the Odyssey (released in 2017), she has become a lightning rod for culture-war disputes.
Wilson rejects the notion that archaic language equates to authority. For Wilson, the hostility toward her translation is less about poetry and more about people reinforcing limited and toxic positions
.
While she avoids the volatility of X (formerly Twitter), Wilson continues to push the boundaries of the epic. She is currently working on a new translation that moves away from the line-for-line constraints of her 2017 version, allowing for longer words and more extensive end notes.
The divide between Nolan’s blockbuster and Wilson’s scholarship reveals a fundamental tension in adaptation: the struggle to balance the demands of a high-budget action spectacle with the psychological intricacies of an ancient poem.
Worth a look
