Translator Emily Wilson Fires Back at Nolan's "Odyssey"
Sir Christopher Nolan’s latest film has swept critics into a frenzy of praise and flooded the box office, yet one voice—Emily Wilson, the scholar who crafted the 2017 English translation mentioned by Nolan—has issued a fire‑hot rebuttal in the London Review of Books.
Wilson’s essay, titled "An Uncomplicated Man," blasts the movie’s structure as gimmicky and its script as “abysmal.” She questions the authority of the characters, noting, “None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words… There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
While acknowledging that Nolan’s work has sparked renewed enthusiasm for Homer's poem, Wilson argues that the adaptation’s ambition outstrips its execution, saying it offers “grand bangs and big giants” but lacks the psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth the original demands.
The academic raves that the film brings audiences back to cinemas and that her translation has seen a surge in sales, yet she remains disappointed by a three‑hour epic that “features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.” Wilson ends with a note of both frustration and gratitude: "Nolan is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful," she writes, before decrying the film’s lack of theatrical lasting power.
Fans of the blockbuster, however, have noted that the movie’s spectacle lives up to the hype, with massive set pieces and cast lists—including Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong'o—delivering a star‑filled narrative that critics at the Telegraph, Metro, the Times and the Standard have hailed as a masterpiece.
Wilson’s critique, while sharply put, adds a valuable counterpoint to the prevailing adulation and reminds viewers that even in a cinematic giant, the roots of the story can still sense the sting of a poet’s hand.
