Some of the female characters in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey contextualize their place within the patriarchy, while others, like Zendaya’s Athena, beg to be on screen.
Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway reveal behind-the-scenes footage of ‘The Odyssey’
Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway reveal the funniest behind-the-scenes stories from The Odyssey, from forgotten lines to Christopher Nolan’s style.
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A man travels far from home. This is the plot of many Christopher Nolan movies.
In The Odyssey (now in theaters), director Nolan has cast many of Hollywood’s brightest women, including Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o. But like most Nolan films, The Odyssey still fails the Bechdel test. To pass, the two women must converse with each other about something other than men. The two women never interact in the entire three-hour movie, unless you count the scene where Penelope (Hathaway) barks orders to the servant Melantho (Mia Goth).
I’m not surprised. In 28 years and 13 films, Nolan has never cast a female lead character. But from the trailers and the cast list of Hollywood royalty, it seemed like perhaps Nolan was turning a corner. Expect more slight shuffling to the sides.
Penelope and Circe (Samantha Morton) poignantly depict the horrors women suffer at the expense of men and their wars. But I mainly left the theater dreaming of an “Odyssey” that showed the actresses to their fullest potential.
‘The Odyssey’ gives Christopher Nolan’s women more to do, but not enough
Nolan’s Achilles heel is notorious for his half-baked female characters. Remember “Oppenheimer,” where Emily Blunt plays a scientist? You’ve probably forgotten about being a scientist, or his well-worn “dead wife” metaphor.
And just by the name of this movie, you can tell that it’s a story about one man, Odysseus.
But “The Odyssey” is also a story about the people and gods who help or hinder his journey home. Many of them are women. Athena actively guides him. Calypso traps him. Penelope remains faithful and rules Ithaca in his absence, cunningly slowing down the suitors.
In outstanding moments, the women of The Odyssey show themselves to be victims of patriarchal and violent domination.
Helen of Nyong’o objects, saying that she is the cause of the war, even though she is the one who launched a thousand ships. Her sister Clytemnestra (also Nyong’o) kills King Agememnon (Benny Safdie), who sacrificed his daughter to gain favor with the gods.
Circe (Morton) turns Odysseus’ men into pigs, only to expose their true nature out of fear of what they will do to her. And although she deviates from the poem, it is Odysseus’ impassioned speech, not sex, that causes her to subvert the poem.
Penelope laments that ultimately men decide her fate, whether it’s her son or the many suitors who come to her door. Furious at her son Telemachus (Tom Holland), who urges her to step forward and remarry to become king of Ithaca, she says, “I’ve been sitting on that empty throne for 20 years.”
Hathaway told Entertainment Weekly that she showed the film to a friend and was impressed with Nolan’s direction, saying, “I felt like everything in ‘The Odyssey’ was about women.” In particular, Calypso (Theron) cares for Odysseus and decides to let him leave, knowing that she will be fine without him. In the poem, she only relents when Zeus forces her. Their bliss, surrounded by beaches and filled with lotus flowers, is very different from the reality of Homer’s story, in which she holds him hostage for sex. Although Nolan doesn’t develop the character to the fullest, he gives her a nuance and agency that other female characters sometimes lack.
Zendaya is underused as Athena in ‘The Odyssey’
But “The Odyssey” is largely in line with other Nolan films, with the women only existing to propel the male characters forward. Nyong’o lacks screen time despite playing two characters and bearing the brunt of backlash for racist casting.
Or take Zendaya’s fantastical Athena, the only god in Nolan’s film adaptation. Athena and Odysseus share a kind of mentor-mentor relationship. She is angry that the Greeks sacked Troy, but she also guides him.
But Zendaya’s character is relegated to providing nods and reassurances to Matt Damon’s Odysseus. It’s a far cry from the active role of the goddess in the book who sends him home. Remember, it was Athena who petitioned Zeus to allow Odysseus to return. And aside from the obvious attraction of Zendaya and Holland sharing the screen, I wish she showed up to Telemachus and encouraged him to confront the suitors like she did with Homer. Nolan’s Odyssey wants us to believe in the indomitable spirit of humanity, not the goddesses working behind the scenes.
I think it’s interesting that director Nolan, who has often been criticized for his portrayal of women, specifically cited Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey before the film’s release. The first English versions by women are often called “feminist”, using descriptive terms such as “woman” or “girl”, while other male translators insert “slut” or “prostitute”.
Wilson herself was unsure whether Nolan’s film adaptation would be feminist.
“If it’s a typical Nolan plot: ‘A man travels far from home and struggles to return to being an objectified female character,’ I don’t think that plot is particularly feminist in nature,” Wilson told Vulture. Despite having some great female actors in the cast, I don’t think director Nolan will create a female-centered story. ”
Hathaway can at least add to Nolan’s list of standout performances, but ultimately The Odyssey is little more than a pleasant addition to Nolan’s canon of adventurers.
