Matt Damon plays Odysseus as a gruff, practical tactician, rather than an energetically inventive and morally dubious schemer.Illustration by Harol BustosAt long last, “The Odyssey” has sailed into theatres. And critics, for the most part, seem pleased: Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of the ancient tale has drawn largely positive reviews. Naomi Fry, Vinson Cunningham, and Alexandra Schwartz, the hosts of our “Critics at Large” podcast, gave it 4, 4.5, and 4.5 stars out of 5, respectively. (You can listen to their complete thoughts on the latest episode of the show.)In his review, Justin Chang says he finds clear echoes of Nolan’s earlier work—including “Dunkirk,” “Memento,” “Interstellar,” and “Oppenheimer.” “A three-thousand-year-old pillar of the Western canon turns out to be something of an urtext for the filmmaker’s career,” he writes.Of course, the film isn’t perfect. Richard Brody laments its lack of gods, writing that this modern interpretation neglects a key part of the story and undermines its enchantments.I asked Brody and Schwartz to answer a few questions about the film, its many stars, and what screen you should try to see it on.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.Alex, I heard you were blown away by the movie.Schwartz: Yeah, I had a great time watching it. It’s spectacular, in all senses. This film grabs you with the ease of the monster Scylla plucking Odysseus’ ill-fated comrades from their ship, and never lets go. It looks great, it sounds great, and it’s a pretty solid adaptation of Homer’s epic, with some interesting, intentional deviations. I did quite miss the humor and the sex of the epic, though, both of which have been totally scraped away.Richard, reading your review, you have emerged as a rare dissenter among critics.Brody: It’s vigorous and engaging—hard to spoil that story—and entertaining for what it is, namely, a misconceived but heartfelt naturalizing of the tale. This version centers a guilt-racked and traumatized Odysseus—and leaves gods and fates, mystery and wonder largely out of the picture. The Homeric text is full of transformations, shape-shifting and super-speed, alongside meticulous labor and elaborate rites; the movie is neither dazzling nor precise.Let’s talk about the acting. This cast is absolutely stacked. Who delivers the best performance?Brody: Anne Hathaway, as Penelope, pours on tight-lipped, fierce-gazing melodrama that’s all the more blazing for the stillness with which she pours out doubt, fear, and indignation.Schwartz: I very much enjoyed Robert Pattinson as cowardly Antinous, Penelope’s chief suitor. His sinister schemes are tinged with camp, in the manner of a villain like Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus from “Gladiator.” Special mention to the Trojan horse: very convincing (at least to the Trojans).And who delivers the worst?Schwartz: I didn’t love Zendaya as Athena, the only deity depicted onscreen. There is a heaviness and sorrow to that wise, ingenious goddess that obscured the character’s power and playfulness—a choice made by Nolan, no doubt to emphasize his dark themes.Brody: All of these actors are professionals, charismatic and persuasive; when a performance is off, it’s usually the director’s fault, as here, with Matt Damon, in the lead role of Odysseus. He portrays the character, as per Nolan’s script, as a reserved, terse, inexpressive, stoic American soldier—it’s not Damon’s fault that his performance, however committed and skillful, suggests nothing of the sly ruses and scheming quickness that mark Homer’s complex hero.The Odyssey has been adapted many times. How does this one compare?Schwartz: This is a fantastically kinetic Odyssey, one that emphasizes the physical arduousness of Odysseus’ journey and the punishing, spectacular landscape of his world. Nolan has chosen to portray Odysseus as a warrior and commander, but ignores the wily, pleasure-loving side of his character. Pleasure, in fact, is hard to come by in this Odyssey. Why is this film so chaste? What does Nolan think Calypso and Odysseus are up to on that island—holding hands?Brody: It’s akin to the neurotic Odysseus in the film-within-a film that’s satirized in Jean-Luc Godard’s “Contempt” (based on Alberto Moravia’s novel “A Ghost at Noon”). Nolan’s approach is consistent and modern, but missing what makes the epic poem such a deep, rich, and wondrous experience.And how might this version reflect our current cultural moment?Brody: Nolan’s version suppresses the cruelty, the gore, the bloodlust, the ruthlessness of the Homeric text—no torture, no mutilation, no enslavement of conquered cities’ women—and it eliminates both the rhetorical splendor of the characters, human and divine (not a talky movie), and their extreme expressiveness (weeping, wailing, tearing of clothes). He turns Homer’s characters into stereotypical Hollywood action-movie heroes—producers’ creations, made, above all, to be sympathetic and relatable.Schwartz: The thing that feels the most contemporary to me is the film’s treatment of women, who are universally depicted as prisoners of a patriarchal world. Helen’s famous face has been disfigured, presumably by her angry husband, Menelaus; the sorceress Circe uses her witchcraft in self-defense, seemingly as a result of traumatic encounters with men. Nolan has been criticized for his thin treatment of women in the past, and I sense he’s making up for it here—but I fear this approach is differently reductive.There is, as Variety put it, a “frenzy” to score tickets to see this one in IMAX 70-mm. How much does format matter?Brody: I saw it in IMAX 70-mm. The screen is big, the image is sharp and bright, but Nolan’s visual compositions are dull—just pictures of actors acting, without style or poetry—and his fetish for size is just bombast and vanity. With imaginatively composed images, the beauty always comes through. I saw Orson Welles’s “The Other Side of the Wind” on my phone, during a long bus ride, and it didn’t need to be supersized to be visually imposing.Schwartz: The IMAX looks awesome. I’m sure other prints will look awesome. Don’t worry too much about it. Just go enjoy, in whatever format.More of our Odyssey coverage:Richard Brody’s full review.The Odyssey has defeated filmmakers in the past, David Denby observed recently.Emily Wilson’s fierce, modern translation of Homer’s poem provided inspiration for the film.Editor’s PickPhotograph by Saul Loeb / Bloomberg / GettyTrump’s Election-Fraud Bait and SwitchThe President promised “really, really big news” before his prime-time speech. What he delivered—padded by heavily redacted declassified documents—felt more like Pam Bondi’s bogus Epstein binders than any true revelation, Ruth Marcus writes. Read the story »More Top StoriesSearching for ancient objects in the Thames used to be a niche pastime. Then came Instagram. Sam Knight goes on a mudlarking journey in London. The President promised to end what had been a quarter century of forever wars in the Middle East. How did he get the U.S. so mired in Iran? The most clicked item in yesterday’s newsletter was about how Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” caused a culture-war explosion.Our Culture PicksA book: “They Stole a City,” by the New Yorker staff writer Lauren Collins, tells the harrowing story of a white-supremacist coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. An album: Tori Amos’s latest, “In Times of Dragons,” stares down threats to American democracy. See what else our critics recommend this week. An exhibit: The Morgan Library’s new show of Peter Hujar’s photographs and contact sheets brings startling truths to the surface.Puzzles & GamesToday’s Crossword Puzzle: Person whose portrait might appear on an airport welcome sign—five letters. Catalogues: Can you sort the items into the correct order? Shuffalo: Can you make a longer word with each new letter? Laugh Lines: Test your knowledge of classic New Yorker cartoons.Daily Cartoon“Darling wife, wait for me. I know not when I will return; the movie is pretty long.”Cartoon by Brendan LoperP.S. “The Odyssey” may be a major epic. But Henry Alford has imagined an even epic-er version of the poem.🏺Ian Crouch contributed to today’s edition.