‘The Odyssey’ translator Emily Wilson blasts Christopher Nolan’s film, calls screenplay ‘abysmal’

Christopher Nolan’s The Odysse y may be dominating the global box office and drawing widespread critical acclaim, but one of the scholars most closely associated with Homer’s epic has emerged as one of its sharpest critics.

Emily Wilson, the celebrated classicist whose 2017 translation of The Odyssey was publicly cited by Nolan as a key influence on his film, has published a blistering review of the adaptation in the London Review of Books . In it, she argues that the film sacrifices the richness of Homer’s poem in favour of spectacle, describing the screenplay as “abysmal.”

Wilson was particularly critical of the film’s writing and characterisation, arguing that it lacks “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth.” She also questioned the motivations of its characters, dismissed its narrative structure as “gimmicky” and wrote, “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”