The classics professor whose translation of “The Odyssey” inspired Christopher Nolan’s film version apparently wasn’t happy with the final result.
Emily Wilson, a classical studies professor at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote the 2017 translation of the ancient Greek poem that inspired the 2026 blockbuster.
The film may have raised Wilson’s profile and boosted sales of her adaptation, but she still gave it a scathing review in the London Review of Books.
Despite calling the film “an entertaining way to hide from the high temperatures for a few hours” and noting that her teenagers “had a good time,” Wilson damned the film with faint praise, comparing it to “an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display – and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth.”
And while conceding that adaptations “needn’t and shouldn’t follow the original with anything like the exactitude of a translation,” Wilson called the film’s vision “too confused” and 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.”
The film “lacks many of the elements that make the poem great,” Wilson argued, and “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 also “lacks psychological, emotional, political, and ethical depth,” she said, calling the narrative structure “gimmicky” and the script “abysmal.”
Wilson added: “None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
She did say she was “humbled” that Nolan had cited her version of the first line of the poem, “Tell me about a complicated man,” but admitted she would “be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”
Yet despite the scathing critique, Wilson still called the film’s release “an event to celebrate” and praised Nolan for “doing his best to get the general public reading again.”
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