Wilson, whose translation of the classic Greek tale was cited by the Oscar-winning director, criticized Christopher Nolan’s adaptation in a scathing essay.
Edward SegarraUSA TODAY
July 28, 2026, 12:49 p.m. ET
“The Odyssey” might be a hit in theaters, but there’s one critic who isn’t jumping up and down.
Literary translator Emily Wilson, whose 2018 edition of “The Odyssey” apparently inspired director Christopher Nolan, criticized his adaptation of the classic Greek tale in a scathing review published in the <a href="https://absafricatv9491.live-website.com/dj-cuppy-meets-rema-in-london-jokes-about-who-paid-for-dinner/” title=”DJ Cuppy Meets Rema In London, Jokes About Who Paid For Dinner”>London Review of Books.
“Christopher Nolan’s $250 million action-movie version of Homer’s ancient Greek poem is an entertaining way to hide from the high temperatures for a few hours,” Wilson wrote. “Unlike some of Nolan’s other films, ‘The Odyssey’ is not boring, thanks to themily-friendly audiovisual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display — and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth.”
Nolan, the Oscar-winning director behind blockbusters “Interstellar” and “Oppenheimer,” cited Wilson’s translation of the Homer poem in a November interview with Empire magazine. “I think it’s the Emily Wilson translation that begins, ‘Tell me about a complicated man,'” Nolan, 55, said at the time.
The acclaimed filmmaker’s adaptation stars Matt Damon as the intrepid Greek king Odysseus, who embarks on a perilous voyage home following the Trojan War. Damon is joined by a star-studded cast that includes Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.
“Adaptations needn’t and shouldn’t follow the original with anything like the exactitude of a translation. Some of the best radically transform or resist theause he is able, temporarily, to suppress his own desires … for a glorious eternal name. But there is no restraint in Nolan’s version of ‘The Odyssey’: every second is jam-packed with incident, lights and noise, and nothing is ever at a human scale.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Nolan’s representatives for comment.
The film has taken Hollywood by storm since its July 17 release, racking up $652 million at the global box office and earning a 94% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. USA TODAY movie critic Brian Truitt lauded Nolan’s adaptation and Damon’s leading-man performance, calling the fantasy action flick “brutal, beautiful and a bit bonkers.”
“Not only is it the greatest work on the iconic director’s noteworthy résumé, but ‘The Odyssey’ also tops Matt Damon’s not-too-shabby CV,” Truitt wrote. “Just give him the best actor Oscar now, for Zeus’ sake, as Damon brilliantly portrays the legendary Odysseus on a quest full of fantastical obstacles and psychological self-discovery that also takes a hard, honest look at the battles we fight and who we fight them for.”
‘The Odyssey’ translator criticizes film’s action-heavy portrayal, ‘race-neutral’ casting
For Wilson, “The Odyssey” was a missed growth opportunity for Nolan.
The translator said while she hoped that Nolan’s exploration of the Greek tale “might push him to new creative heights,” the film “features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality,” namely Nolan’s flair for action-packed theatrics.
“Without a tub of wax for my ears − which Himesh Patel’s ever-anxious Eurylochus, Odysseus’ doomed right-hand man, uses to sail safely past the Sirens − I was exposed to the full din of thumping sticks, staffs, swords and clashing armor, thunderbolts, crashing waves, grunts, screams, toppling palaces and burning temples,” Wilson wrote. “But unlike Matt Damon, the wax-free Odysseus who is tied to the mast as he is conveyed past the Sirens (naked ladies reclining on some uncomfortable-looking rocks), I gazed at the shipwrecks and bloodbaths without any agony of emotion.”
Wilson also took aim at the movie’s racially diverse cast, criticizing Nolan for underutilizing the onscreen talent of stars such as Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Himesh Patel and Travis Scott.
“The race-neutral casting of Nolan’s Odyssey was inevitably deplored in some quarters. But there is nothing progressive about it,” Wilson wrote. “Most of the non-white actors … play versions of the Black best friend, whose only role in the drama is to provide aid to the white protagonist.”
Of Scott’s cameo, Wilson added, “As the Ithacan bard Phemius, [Scott] yells a few words and pounds a stick but does not get to sing, tell a story or play the lyre: the most melodic note in the percussive soundtrack comes from the plucking of Odysseus’ bow.”
‘Odyssey’ stars Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway ‘have no chemistry,’ translator says
And Odysseus isn’t winning heartthrob of the year in Wilson’s book.
“The Odyssey” translator ripped Damon’s romantic performance with costar Hathaway, who portrays Odysseus’ wife Penelope. While Wilson praised Hathaway for her “expressive” performance and “beautiful and mysterious” look, she skewered her empty storyline.
“The script gives her nothing to do except yearn for Matt Damon, for reasons unknown,” Wilson wrote. “The couple have no chemistry and nothing in common. Throughout his wanderings, the uxorious Odysseus clings to a little doll figure, intended to represent his wife (like the spinning top clutched by Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Inception’); the real woman is barely more interesting.”
‘The Odyssey’ translator says she would be ‘ashamed’ to be part of Nolan film
Imitation may be flattering, but Wilson has mixed feelings about her “Odyssey” connection.
The translator acknowledged Nolan’s referencing of her version of “The Odyssey” but lamented the director’s overall portrayal of the mythology icon.
“As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation of ‘The Odyssey’ into iambic pentameter,” Wilson wrote. “In at least one interview, he cited my version of the first line of the poem: ‘Tell me about a complicated man.’ But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful.”
Wilson added that Nolan’s adaptation “lacks many of the elements that make the poem great.”
“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,” Wilson wrote. “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. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”
Despite its flaws, Wilson shared her appreciation for the film’s cultural impact of promoting classic literature in the mainstream.
“In what we are told is a time of declining literacy and the ‘death of the humanities,’ translations of ‘The Odyssey,’ including mine, are flying off the shelves,” Wilson wrote. “Some of those who buy the book or show up in cinemas to watch Tom Holland may go on to study ancient Greek. Perhaps the film will persuade a few college administrators not to cut their literature, language and history departments.
“Nolan, who studied English at University College London – where students still study ‘The Odyssey’ as a first-year ‘foundational text’ – is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful.”
Contributing: Brian Truitt, USA TODAY
