‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Torches Christopher Nolan: Calls His Screenplay ‘Abysmal’
Emily Wilson has criticised Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey screenplay — a swipe that will raise eyebrows among anyone who reveres Homer.
On the movie’s press tour, Christopher Nolan pointed to Emily Wilson’s 2017 English translation of Homer’s epic as a touchstone for his take on The Odyssey. Now Wilson has weighed in herself — in a review for the London Review of Books — and her verdict on the film is blistering.
“The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words.”
What Wilson takes issue with
Wilson argues Nolan’s adaptation lacks the inner life and broader stakes that make Homer endure. In her piece, she says the movie sidesteps the emotional and moral complexity of Odysseus’ world and the people around him, and leans on flash without substance.
- She faults the film for an absence of psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth.
- She writes the movie has “nothing convincing to say.”
- Key themes — time, memory, war, history and the emotional fallout for Odysseus’ family and companions — are, in her view, given little real insight.
- She calls the narrative structure “gimmicky.”
- She notes skipped or reduced episodes from the poem and even complains the on-screen food looks unappetizing.
- She had hoped Nolan’s long-standing interest in Homeric ideas would yield richer, more believable characters.
Wilson adds that the film fits a familiar Nolan pattern: prioritizing spectacle over substance. She does acknowledge the large-scale action and visual sequences are impressive — but says the ambitious ideas are undercut by an unfocused story and underdeveloped characters.
Meanwhile, at the box office
Wilson’s takedown lands as audiences keep turning out. Nolan’s The Odyssey is already one of the year’s biggest theatrical events.
- $639 million worldwide in its first 10 days.
- $286.3 million domestic to date.
- A second-weekend drop of 29.6% — one of the stronger holds for a movie that opened north of $100 million.
- Now “on the verge” of crossing $1 billion globally, which could make it the highest-grossing film of Nolan’s career.