When Christopher Nolan was promoting The Odyssey a few weeks ago, he shared a really funny story about his son humbling him. You see, Nolan closed himself off in his office to adapt the screenplay for The Odyssey, and his son came into the office and wondered where his father had put all of his Oscars (for Oppenheimer). Nolan told his son that he removed the Oscars from view because he didn’t want the pressure of writing a complicated script while eye-to-eye with all of that hardware. His son replied, “But you didn’t win for writing.” LMAO. You can be one of the greatest living directors and your kid is still going to kneecap you. I bring up this story because someone else had a complaint about Nolan’s writing: Emily Wilson, who did the 2017 translation of The Odyssey. Wilson wrote a scathing “review” of the film and one of the understatements of the year is that she loathed the screenplay. From the Guardian:
Emily Wilson, the classicist whose 2017 translation of Homer’s Odyssey was cited by Christopher Nolan in early publicity for his hugely successful adaptation of the poem, has roundly criticised the film, saying “it has nothing convincing to say” and that its “lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth”.
In a scathing essay for the London Review of Books, Wilson writes: “I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters. But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality … the film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants.”
Wilson adds: “Nolan’s Odyssey lacks many of the elements that make the poem great. It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends and neighbours. It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
Wilson also noted Nolan’s admiration for the opening line of her Odyssey translation: “Tell me about a complicated man” – but added: “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”
Wilson, who is department chair and professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, also went on the attack in an interview with the Sunday Times, saying: “It didn’t land emotionally for me at all. Which I think is partly about the fact that, unlike Homer, it’s not very well written.”
“The characters don’t have the kind of depth the Homeric characters have. I felt, ‘Do I really care if this guy gets back to his wife?’ You haven’t given me any reason to.”
Nevertheless, Wilson acknowledged the impact the film is already having on cultural awareness of ancient Greek literature as well as cinema itself. Saying “the release of The Odyssey is still an event to celebrate,” she suggests: “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.”
“Nolan,” Wilson says, “is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful.”
Fair or not? I think it’s fair. I would even go so far as to say that Nolan has never been a great screenwriter. His dialogue is often clunky, he uses amateurish tricks to introduce exposition and move the story along, and his female characters are always underdeveloped (if he even remembers that women exist in the first place). There’s a reason why his son’s burn came so easily – Nolan is a genius in many ways, but writing is not one of those ways. That being said, I actually think it was smart for Nolan to basically “dumb down” such complicated source material and make it digestible to a modern audience while still retaining the core story. Of course a literal classics professor and translator isn’t going to like that, but Wilson gives Nolan his flowers for reintroducing Greek mythology to a mainstream audience in 2026.
“There are no sex scenes and all the food looks horrible” – magnificent line.
lmao Emily Wilson went to TOWN on Nolan's The Odyssey https://t.co/ZYV2UERMR5 pic.twitter.com/Ic25VvzR4b
— Corey Atad (@CoreyAtad) July 27, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA – JULY 14: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway wearing custom Prada with Bulgari jewels, styled by Erin Walsh arrive at the New York Premiere Of Universal Pictures’ ‘The Odyssey’ held at AMC Lincoln Square 13 on July 14, 2026 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.,Image: 1116667695, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway , Credit line: Image Press Agency/Image Press Agency/Avalon
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- Christopher Nolan poses backstage with the Oscar® for Directing and Best Picture during the live ABC telecast of the 96th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024.,Image: 855771625, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
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- Christopher Nolan attends the world premiere of “The Odyssey” at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 06, 2026 in London, England.,Image: 1114880185, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Lounis Tiar/Avalon
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- Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas attending The Odyssey World Premiere at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom,Image: 1115006704, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
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- Cast attend the World Premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London Featuring: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas Where: London, London, United Kingdom When: 06 Jul 2026 Credit: Steve Vas/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
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- Paris premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ at the Grand Rex theater Featuring: John Leguizamo, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan Where: Paris, France When: 08 Jul 2026 Credit: Sebastien Fremont/Starface Photo/Cover Images **UK AND USA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- NY Premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ Featuring: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway Where: New York, New York, United States When: 15 Jul 2026 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
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- Premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ at AMC Lincoln Square Featuring: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 14 Jul 2026 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Her father is AN Wilson and god does it ever show. If you want prissy, scathing, judgemental, uptight, arrogant, bitchy, grandiose superficiality void of empathy, or depth, see the Wilsons. I don’t know how she ended up in America. They probably think her attitude is a harmless British quirk, like an academic’s set of eccentricities. She didn’t write the Odyssey. Homer did. If you believe in the notion of an author, some people just believe it was an oral tradition, a legend that everyone who transcribes it has interpreted in a different way.
I love emily wilsons translations, particularly because of her introductions which go into depth about homer and the lack of evidence that he ever existed.
Her review is brilliantly thought out, imo, and she gives Nolan a lot of credit for the things he did well.
Critiques of writing are allowed! I feel like so many people take it as a blanket “this film sucks” instead of just an examination of one part of the movie. And a valid one, as Nolan is not the best writer AND cited her as an inspiration.
The sex and food line did take me out. Some points were made but some of her discussion of the actors of color in the film, well, maybe she should’ve let some poc talk about that bc it came across as very white British, let’s put it that way.
I don’t get why folks are out here acting as if she wrote the Odyssey. Ms. Wilson can have her opinion and Nolan’s works speaks for itself. I do find her tattoos distracting and her speaking in the dialect cringey.
I wonder how much of Wilson’s review is a mismatch of a scholar who had time to go deep on a 15,000 line poem and a scriptwriter and director who has to write a script for a three hour movie.
I don’t think Nolan would write a good sex scene so.I’m fine he didn’t try.
Yes, Nolan absolutely dumbed it down for a mainstream audience, many if not most of whom know little or nothing about Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey or any of the ancient classics*. The point that his film has spurred interest in some of those works is on point. I totally agree that the food looked disgusting, and I too am grateful Nolan didn’t try to write any sex scenes. God. I felt the level of intimacy between Odysseus and Penelope before he left for Troy was perfect, and the attempted seduction between Antinous and Penelope effective. I’m happy enough with that.
*We’re just lucky they’ve survived in any form, honestly.
100% agree. Nolan was making a commercial film—that’s a very different form of art than an epic poem written in iambic pentameter. They might be based on the same work but they’re not comparable at all.
The Odyssey was written from a few centuries of oral tradition and it was an interpretation of the original poem. Studies and researchers have kind of decided on a version which is also an interpretation. I see nothing wrong or matter to critic on how an interpretation of the poem is done as ms. Wilson herself defend an interpretation. No original manuscript written by the great authors of Ancient Greece (such as Homer, Plato, or Sophocles) has survived. Partial texts exist on Egyptian papyrus and transcripts were done in the Middle-Age.
I think Nolan handles sex and violence very well, insofar as he doesn’t get graphic images out of it — it’s clearly there but it’s not used to titillate the audience. So you can take your kids to this film in good conscience and be assured they will take away the bigger picture lessons and morals and not be hopelessly distracted by prurient imagery. He’s a grown up. But the sex scenes (let’s say the two adults in bed scenes) between Odysseus and Penelope, before he leaves for Troy, and Calypso, on the island where he dallies seven years, could not be anything but observations of physical intimacy. And the food — fwiw — isn’t supposed to be appetising. Circe’s meal is for pigs, quite literally. The grub served to the suitors is — as one character observes — whatever is left, after they’ve raided the larder for two decades and emptied the wine cellar.
Oh my goodness I am so over the overwrought handwringing about this movie. You aren’t required to see it. And if you’re worried that people are going to learn the ” wrong” things about it from watching the sparks notes movie version of a 15,000 line poem, you are barking up the wrong tree.
It’s like people can’t just enjoy stuff for what it is anymore. Everything written is not going to be Pulitzer worthy, every movie is not going to be Oscar worthy, and every adaptation is not going to be a faithful rendering line by line of the source material.
Thank you! I hate how everyone has to have a take, like don’t see the movie. I think it is fair to say he made a mistake removing xyz with the understanding he’d have too.
Also Nolan has been honest he did make it in modern language so people would be interested and follow the main message of the story.
But if you don’t like that don’t see it. Not that hard. I think people just like to be mad.
Well she is welcome to try to sit down and write a screenplay that can be delivered on time and on budget. I hope this blows back on her a bit – you can be critical without being this level of bitchy.
I have read at least 5 translations of The Odyssey including Ms Wilson’s. Hers was good, but not as satisfying as others. Her reading of it may be more accurate. I don’t read classical Greek. Nolan’s is ANOTHER telling of it. Yes, lots was left out. (Odysseus told the Cyclops his name was no man. Just before he left he told the Cyclops that he was Odysseus, conqueror of Troy.) His hubris was his downfall. If Nolan was to include all that was in the books the movie would be 10 hours long. I liked his interpretation of Odysseus as a PSTD victim. I didn’t get the way he said that Odysseus didn’t want to go home. But, it fit with his storyline. I loved the movie.
Of course no screenplay is going to equal Homer. Most interesting to me was the comment that the film is very much “middle brow” and that one of the defining features of middle brow is that it has to be understood by the audience the first time they hear/read/experience it. We don’t really have a lot of middle brow art anymore, intelligent works intended for a mass audience. Just like in the 50s, probably the high point for the American middlebrow, there were so many critics trashing the film of Hitchcock, Ford, et al. They were not taken seriously by serious people. Fascinating to watch that bubble up again.
Also, for an academic takedown, that really wasn’t so mean. Just letting the normies have a taste of it. It really felt like an entitled dude taking down a woman’s work on slightly unfair grounds. People should sit with that.
My main worry is that too many people are afraid to admit they like anything that’s been slammed too hard. Also, that a scholar of Ancient Greek can hate on a movie that hard and it can still be a very good film.
She’s not the only classics scholar to have said this – pretty much all of them agree in some way or another and none of them have said Nolan doesn’t have the right to tell the story how he wants. The thing is that Nolan has cherry-picked the story to deliver his personal message, ignored critical scenes, changed the characters’ personalities and added an ending which has no basis on anything.
I think it’s interesting that people are piling onto Wilson when she’s been lauded for her translation, it’s pace, accessible language and pro-feminist slant, especially since Nolan has said he was inspired by her translation.
She can have whatever opinion she wants, but the review is unfair. Nolan isn’t an academic — he’s making a movie that’s fun to watch in IMAX. He’s not writing with the same concerns she would have, nor should he be — that would make for a terrible film.
She’s not really talking about academics – she’s saying that the screenplay itself doesn’t make sense, most of the characters aren’t engaging and dramatic points fell flat. For me, Nolan’s Odysseus was flattened out and made much less fun to watch.
I read the original essay. She 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 him.
Stories are meant to be told and retold in whatever medium the storyteller uses with whatever their POV. Oral tradition, prose, poetry with meter, fancy elite language versus vernacular, movies with visuals and sound, paintings — they’re all different media with their aspects. Wilson’s using her medium of written text to judge a movie is way mismatched. And basically we’re talking about a road trip story here.
He is getting millions of people in to see it many of who likely had no idea of the original source material. That is always a plus because as even Ms. Sour Pants admits, some of them will seek out the source afterward. And most grown-up people are very accustomed to having film adaptions being different to the book or poem source material because film is a very different medium and has to be made to appeal to the largest number possible in order to get made. And usually the complaints include the “dumbing down” of the material to suit the wider audience as well as altering aesthetics of clothing, hairstyles food etc to make it digestible for a modern audience, which I admit to hating in many cases. But I have given up complaining about it because why bother. No one is forcing me to go see endless Jane Austen remakes i.e and I don’t, and no one is being forced to see the Odyssey.
My favorite odyssey movie was O Brother, Where Art Thou. The Cohen brothers had reportedly never read it, just went on vibes. Her critique of the characters not wanting anything, or having real motivations, was the most damming one to me. That makes it sound extremely unsatisfying from a story perspective.