Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Penelope Hathaway is tired for a different reason: although she hopes her husband Odysseus is still alive, she has to fend off 108 rude suitors—they’re like Airbnb guests who refuse to leave. These men, each aspiring to be king, hope to force her into marriage. Chief among them is the aggressive, reptilian Antinous – played by Robert Pattinson with a grin plastered on. Hathaway’s costumes and jewelry are the saving grace of these scenes: at one point she wears a dress that flows around her in glittering turquoise folds, a testament to the fact that Nolan is at least committed to hiring the best craftsmen – not just anyone can dye fabric to make it look so shiny. (Costume designer is Ellen Mirojnick.)
But unlike Odysseus, who survived being ambushed by giants, sorceresses, nymphs and a host of other distractions, Nolan became caught up in the details of his life. Odyssey. The poem, full of events, descriptions, magic and all kinds of deceptions, is episodic in nature. How do you make this story flow smoothly across the screen? Maybe you do this not by trying to fit everything in, but by cutting away, focusing on the most powerful, exciting and touching details. You could do something like what Uberto Pasolini did with his 2024 invisible painting. Return, with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, who occupies the final segment Odyssey and weaves it into an elegant, touching whole. It doesn’t help that Nolan Odyssey— even when viewed in IMAX, as he hopes audiences will see — looks muddy and unimpressive. Return was filmed in Greece and Italy, and its landscapes are part of its lifeblood; cinematographer Marius Panduru makes Ithaca a place worth coming home to. Nolan’s Odyssey, Shot by frequent collaborator Hoyt van Hoytema in a variety of locations, including Italy, Greece, Morocco, Iceland and Scotland, nearly every landscape—a churning sea here, a cliff there—looks the same as usual, only bigger. The soil is there, but you don’t feel its texture; there is the sun, but you don’t feel its warmth. When Odysseus Damon is greeted by his ancient, dying dog Argos, who has patiently and patiently awaited his return, Argos’s little tail mechanically curls as he takes his last breath. Odysseus expresses an outburst of grief and then moves on to the next bar. There’s not a minute to waste here, even with a running time of nearly three hours.