Odyssey Translator Writes Scathing Review of Nolan Adaptation

The academic whose translation of Homer's Odyssey was cited as an influence on Christopher Nolan's film adaptation has written a highly critical review of the finished movie, the BBC reported.

Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation the director named as a reference point, published her assessment in the London Review of Books. She wrote that she "would be ashamed to have written any of this script" and described the film's narrative structure as "gimmicky."

'The writing is abysmal'

Wilson's criticism was direct. "The writing is abysmal," she wrote. "None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible."

She said the adaptation "lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth", and that she had hoped Nolan's affinity with Homeric themes "might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters".

The film, which stars Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, is Nolan's first since the Oscar-winning Oppenheimer.

Criticism with a caveat

Wilson did not dismiss the project entirely, and her review ended somewhere more generous than it began.

"The release of The Odyssey is still an event to celebrate," she wrote, pointing to its effect beyond the cinema. "This epic is bringing audiences back to cinemas... translations of Odyssey, including mine, are flying off the shelves... [and] perhaps the film will persuade a few college administrators not to cut their literature, language and history departments."

She added: "Nolan... is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful."

An unusual position for a critic

The review is notable less for its severity than for its source. Adaptations are routinely criticised by scholars of the original text, but rarely by one the director has publicly credited as an influence.

That gives Wilson's objections a particular weight — and makes her closing acknowledgement, that the film may do more for classical literature than the script deserves, the more striking half of the piece.

Reporting basis: BBC Entertainment.