Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Gets Honest Movie Review By His Own Younger Brother

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Jonathan Nolan, brother of director Christopher Nolan, recently gave his opinion on the upcoming movie adaptation of The Odyssey. The film, based on the classic Greek story by Homer, stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and follows his difficult ten-year voyage back to his home in Ithaca after the Trojan War.

With its epic story full of monsters, gods, and magical beings, The Odyssey promises to be Christopher Nolan’s most imaginative and ambitious film to date. It’s also groundbreaking technically – it’s the first movie ever filmed entirely using IMAX cameras. Demand was incredibly high when tickets for IMAX showings went on sale last year, and they sold out almost instantly.

I recently got a sneak peek at Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, The Odyssey, and let me tell you, it lives up to the buzz. My brother, Jonathan Nolan, shared with CinemaBlend that he’s already seen it and was blown away – he called it a ‘tremendous’ and ‘incredible achievement.’ While they’ve teamed up on some classics like Memento, The Prestige, and the Dark Knight films, Jonathan isn’t actually involved in this particular project. But as a sibling, he clearly recognizes the sheer scale and brilliance of what Christopher has accomplished with this one.

Nolan said he loved The Iliad and The Odyssey as a kid, and he enjoyed discussing the direction of the film with Chris. He described it as a spectacular movie and confirmed he’d seen the entire thing, adding that he thought it was tremendous.

Nolan recalled that his older brother, Chris, had always loved telling stories and making movies. He remembered Chris starting very young – when Chris was around six or seven, their mom gave him their dad’s old Super 8 camera, and he was immediately busy filming.

“It’s been a long journey,” he concluded.

Christopher Nolan has said that he’s been inspired by Greek and Roman mythology since he was a child. He recently told Empire magazine that he remembers seeing a school play based on the story of Ulysses (an early version of The Odyssey) when he was just five or six years old.

Mythology has really stuck with me over the years. I truly believe it’s something we all carry inside us. When you start digging into these classic stories and adapting them for film, you realize how much everything else—even the films I’ve made—traces back to The Odyssey. My wife and producer, Emma Thomas, actually put it perfectly when we first announced this project: it’s a foundational story, and that’s what drew me to it.

Matt Damon will be joined by familiar faces from Christopher Nolan’s previous films in The Odyssey. Anne Hathaway will play Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, while Robert Pattinson will portray Antinous, one of the many men hoping to marry her. Benny Safdie will appear as Agamemnon, a leader in the Greek army, and Elliot Page also joins the cast.

The film also stars Tom Holland as Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, alongside Zendaya as the goddess Athena and Charlize Theron as the sorceress Circe. Jon Bernthal plays Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, while Mia Goth appears as the housemaid Melantho. John Leguizamo portrays Eumaeus, a swineherd and friend of Odysseus. Rounding out the cast are Lupita Nyong’o, Ryan Hurst, James Remar, Travis Scott, Samantha Morton, and Logan Marshall-Green.

Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited take on The Odyssey has been in development for years, following his earlier consideration to direct the 2004 film Troy. His brother, Jonathan Nolan, has shared that this project is a deeply personal passion for Christopher, and audiences will soon be able to see the results when the film is released later this year.

The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17.

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2026-02-05 19:20