Professor Emily Wilson, a classicist from the University of Pennsylvania who wrote a 2017 translation of Homer's Odyssey, has written a scathing review of Christopher Nolan's new film adaptation of the epic, a movie the director had promoted in part by citing her own translation.
Writing in the London Review of Books, Wilson said: "I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script." She called the writing "abysmal" and said the film "has nothing convincing to say."
"It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky," she wrote.
One of Wilson's central complaints is that the film does not include enough sex scenes. "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.
A reference that didn't land
Wilson's connection to the film began during early press for the movie, when Nolan referenced the opening lines of her 2017 translation: "Tell me about a complicated man." Wilson said she was "humbled" by the reference, but did not think Nolan had learned much from her work.
"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," she wrote. "But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality."
She added: "Without a tub of wax for my ears... I was exposed to the full din of thumping sticks, staffs, swords and clashing armour, thunderbolts, crashing waves, grunts, screams, toppling palaces and burning temples."
Wilson also said Odysseus isn't enough of a "flirt" and "rarely seems to sleep or have sex." Referring to the section of the poem in which Odysseus and his crew land on the island of the witch Circe, she complained that the film's Odysseus does not stop to "have sex with the goddess even for an hour, let alone a whole magical year."
Despite her criticism, Wilson said she did not object to Nolan's choice to use modern language in the script rather than archaic phrasing, a choice that has also defined her own translation of the poem.
Online, some critics have objected to the cast speaking in modern American accents and using colloquial phrases such as "dad."
"It didn't land emotionally"
In a separate interview with The Sunday Times, Wilson said: "It didn't land emotionally for me at all. 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?'"
She again criticized the lack of food and sex scenes, saying: "The Odyssey is all about eating and it's all about a man getting back to his marriage bed to have sex with his wife."
Wilson's review is not the first public criticism the film has drawn. It has also drawn objections from right-wing commentators, including billionaire Elon Musk, over its use of colour-blind casting, in particular the casting of Lupita Nyong'o as both Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.
Dr Stephan Blum, an archaeologist and Troy expert from the University of Tübingen, told the Daily Mail that the casting choices did not concern him. "Homer's epics are nearly 3,000 years old. I think contemporary adaptations can legitimately take certain creative liberties to make these stories resonate with modern audiences," he said. "The nationality of the cast, in my view, is of little importance. What ultimately matters is whether the film captures the spirit, complexity, and enduring appeal of these extraordinary stories."
