Odyssey translator slams Nolan's film adaptation as 'gimmicky' with 'no sex' - BBC

What the report says

BBC News reported that Emily Wilson, the academic translator whose 2017 English version of Homer’s Odyssey was cited by Christopher Nolan as an influence on his new film, has strongly criticized the adaptation despite its wider critical success. In a review published by the London Review of Books, Wilson faulted the screenplay, structure and characterization, calling the film “gimmicky” and saying she would have been embarrassed to write the script.

According to the BBC, Wilson argued that the three-hour Universal Pictures epic lacked psychological and emotional depth, and said its characters were not given convincing reasons for what they say or do. She also contrasted the film’s portrayal of women with the original poem, saying the source material allows for more female figures than are typical in Nolan’s work but that the film gives them little substance.

Wilson nevertheless acknowledged a positive effect from the release, noting that Nolan’s film has revived public interest in Homer’s poem and in translations of The Odyssey, including her own. She also suggested the attention could help reinforce the value of literature, language and history departments.

The film, Nolan’s first since the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, has received highly favorable reviews from several critics, according to the BBC. The adaptation stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, with Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o also in the cast. The story follows Odysseus’s hazardous journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.