“I Would Be Ashamed”: Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Slammed as “Abysmal” by the Translator Who Inspired It

The scholar whose work inspired Christopher Nolan‘s new ‘Odyssey‘ movie has torn it apart in a brutal review.

Emily Wilson, the classicist whose 2017 translation Nolan said he used as a key reference, called the screenplay “abysmal” and said she “would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”

Classicist Calls Nolan ‘Odyssey’ Film Shallow and Lacking Emotional Depth

Wilson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the first woman to translate Homer’s epic into English, published her takedown in the London Review of Books. The movie grossed over $600 million in just over a week and has been a huge hit, but Wilson argues it is just a shallow spectacle that misses the whole point of the poem.

Related: Christopher Nolan Sent ‘The Odyssey’ Cast to Sea for Months on a Real Viking Ship Instead of Using CGI

“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,” Wilson wrote. “But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.”

Her review is called ‘An Uncomplicated Man,‘ which is a direct nod to her own famous opening line, “Tell me about a complicated man.” She says the film is all noise and no meaning. “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,” she writes.

She goes after the heart of Nolan’s script. She says the movie is empty and leaves out everything that has made the poem last for thousands of years. “Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ lacks many of the elements that make the poem great,” Wilson states. “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 neighbors.”

Emily Wilson Criticizes Matt Damon’s Odysseus and Anne Hathaway’s Penelope Performances

Wilson did not hold back in her criticism of the characters and story. “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,” she writes. Then she adds the line that has gotten everyone’s attention: “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”

In case you missed it: “I Could Not See”: John Leguizamo Says Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Left Him Nearly Blind for 14 Hours a Day

She was especially bothered by how the main couple, Odysseus and Penelope, were played by Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway. She thought Damon’s Odysseus was “lummoxy” and missing the cleverness and charm that make the hero who he is. Hathaway’s Penelope gets “little to do but yearn for Odysseus for reasons unknown.” She also pointed out a confusing double standard in the movie, where Odysseus defying the gods is shown as heroic, but when a lesser character does the same thing, it is shown as “stupid and greedy.”

On a lighter note, she also mentioned that the film fails to capture the more human and sensual parts of the poem. “There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible,” Wilson noted.

Despite Harsh Criticism, Emily Wilson Credits Nolan for Boosting ‘Odyssey’ Book Sales

Even though she clearly dislikes the movie as a piece of art, Wilson was nice enough to admit that it has gotten people interested in the ancient world again. She said sales of her translation and others have gone up since the film came out, and called it a chance to celebrate more interest in the classics. “In what we are told is a time of declining literacy… translations of The Odyssey, including mine, are flying off the shelves,” she wrote. She added that she was grateful Nolan was “doing his best to get the general public reading again.”

It is a strange twist. The translator Nolan mentioned to give his project some weight has now become his harshest critic, and her review will likely shape how the movie is remembered in literary circles for a long time.

You might also want to read: “The Greatest Arms I’ve Ever Seen”: Matt Damon Clears Up Viral ‘The Odyssey’ Physique Praise With Surprising Stunt Double Reveal