The Real Star of Nolan's 'Odyssey' Is the 20-Year Marriage

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few weeks, you’ve no doubt been exposed to the heated debate over the newly released adaptation of Homer’s classic poem, The Odyssey. The film is directed by Christopher Nolan, known for his grand-scale movies with dark undertones. The Odyssey is so hotly debated online it’s starting to feel more like a Rorschach test for one’s values than an adventure film. With all of this buzz, I really didn’t know what I was about to watch or experience. And I’ll be honest, the movie is okay. Emphasis on the okay. It’s cinematically stunning. We want movies that feel grand; audiences long for it, clearly marked by the record-breaking opening . We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, like how classics Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings made us feel . But grandeur aside, so many of its other elements are subpar, making the movie feel hollow . All that considered, the movie makes a deliberate choice to go all in on this one traditional value. In a culturally radical choice for today, Nolan’s Odyssey emphasizes the generation-defining power of a strong marriage. A marriage worth fighting for How many times have you sat through a movie that portrays the married wife as captive, the husband as bored, and the marriage as uninspiring? I know I've watched too many to count at this point. That seems to be the default setting when portraying marriage in Hollywood these days. But, arguably, the greatest tale from Western civilization had a different take on marriage. And thankfully, Nolan’s Odyssey was not afraid to lean into it. Amid all the battles, monsters, witches, and gods, the main character, Odysseus, played by Matt Damon, had many adventures and journeys. Yet, his most legendary journey was his decades-long marriage to his wife and love of his life, Penelope. He had a marriage worth fighting for, a marriage worth returning home for. His most legendary journey was his decades-long marriage to his wife and love of his life, Penelope. One of the most striking things about this movie is what Nolan omits, in a good way. In the original text, Odysseus sleeps with the witch Circe to free his men (whom she’s turned into pigs) and with Calypso (a nymph who holds him captive for years). I’m honestly shocked that Nolan didn’t, in true Hollywood fashion, turn these moments into full-on sex scenes. He could’ve easily created a hot and heavy scene between Matt Damon and Charlize Theron, but he refrains. Instead, he focuses on showing a man rejecting everlasting life with a gorgeous ethereal nymph in favor of returning to his wife. His deepest desire was for the love of his life, his wife. That elevates a central theme in the poem, the reward of self-control. This proves to us that his heroism isn’t defined by how many monsters he slays by how committed he is to his vows. Coming home is the greatest victory When we think of warriors, our minds immediately conjure up villains, battles, conquests, political power, and glory. That molds an epic story. But what if we’re getting the intention of The Odyssey all wrong? This is where I think Nolan deserves praise. Sure, he put all of the action in, but it was never central to the point. The winds guiding Odysseus, his raison d'être, was always to reunite with Penelope and his son. This movie treats one warrior’s reunion with his family as the highest reward achievable. Odysseus was made a war hero; there were songs of his victory. He was famous. Still, his deepest desire wasn’t another opportunity to grow his fame; it was a quiet return to his family. The story’s resolution comes when Odysseus rejoins with his wife, not when he defeats enemies. Home, not adventure, is the destination that gives the greatest reward. It takes two Despite its title, this story doesn’t just show the strength of one man. It shows the unbreakable strength of a wife and husband. Queen of Ithaca and wife to Odysseus, Penelope is played by Anne Hathaway. I wouldn’t call Anne’s performance Oscar-worthy, but it is solid. The love scenes with her husband are passionate; in the scenes without him, you see her deep yearning. But Penelope isn’t helplessly waiting. Through it all, we see her resolve to guard her kingdom and husband’s throne, even though she has droves of men vying to take his place and take her for a wife. It is her patience and discernment that protect Ithaca while her husband is away. Their reunion is especially touching, as you see a husband and wife still so in love despite decades of separation. The poem lays it out perfectly. “Then at last they sat and spoke, and the talk was sweet; his tears, too, fell as he told her all his sufferings and wanderings.” One of the best reflections of the strength of their bond is seen through the eyes of their son, played by Tom Holland. You see their son’s eyes light up watching his parents reconnect, looking as if he was able to breathe easily for the first time in his life. That is the true mark of a healthy union, its positive ripple effects on others. Strong marriages build kingdoms I’ve read and watched quite a few takes on Nolan’s Odyssey, but one I enjoyed is by ancient Greek literature classicist Spencer Klavan, who penned it in the Wall Street Journal . He fills you in on the crucial parts of the poem that Nolan leaves out. Central pieces that strongly point to the exceptionalism of Odysseus. When confronted with temptation, our hero resists and shares, “Nothing is better or stronger than when a man and a woman, thinking as one, build their household together. It’s grief to their enemies, and joy to those who love them.” How true is that, even still today? We have a tendency to think that the dissolution of a marriage only affects the two people, but that is completely wrong. It inevitably affects others, and sometimes even a community. It is destabilizing when a union is fractured, for family and society. We see that lesson played out as Penelope tries to ward off the suitors who want to take her husband’s place and are actively ruining Ithaca’s community with their ambition and greed. You almost don’t realize that is the backbone of the movie. It was incredibly countercultural for Nolan to lean in on the lesson that restoring marriage restores social order. Strong marriages build strong families, communities, even generations to come. We see this crucial connection of a stable marriage leading back to the health and preservation of a good society. Nolan preserves Homer’s portrayal of a family as the foundation on which political and cultural stability rests. And he does it so skillfully, showing, not telling, that you almost don’t realize that is the backbone of the movie. The real epic For all the talk about what Nolan's Odyssey gets right and wrong, perhaps its greatest achievement is something far simpler: it reminds us that marriage can be epic. Not because it’s easy or because we never experience temptation, isolation, or grief. But because, as Nolan, points out, a strong marriage is the ultimate prize. That’s a vision of marriage we rarely see on screen anymore. Hollywood gives us countless stories about finding love, boredom in marriage, the seven-year itch, needing to put oneself first above all else. But The Odyssey offers something different. It’s a story about building a life with another person and discovering that the life you built together is worth fighting to preserve. In a culture that celebrates independence above all else, Homer (and now, Nolan) gives us a hero whose greatest desire is not to be free from his family, but to be reunited with them. That’s why the real star of this movie isn’t its award-winning actors or high-tech effects, it’s the radical message that true marital love is epic, is worth fighting for, and creates legacies beyond our wildest dreams.