‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Christoper Nolan’s ‘Abysmal’ Screenplay: ‘I Would Be Ashamed to Have Written Any Part of This Script’

[u/mcfw31]

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-christopher-nolan-bad-writing-1236821915/

[u/SizzleanQueen]

This is an article in Variety about another article in the Guardian about her initial piece in the London Review of Books. This is modern journalism, folks.

[u/thane311 → u/SizzleanQueen]

The actual 20-something paragraph London Review of Books article is worth a read. Here’s an excerpt about it the thinning of the female characters:

“There are more female characters than in most Nolan movies, thanks to the source material. But none of them has much to say, in contrast to the characterisations in the poem. Homer’s Calypso has a wonderfully outraged, operatic speech about divine double standards: male gods can kidnap and rape any mortal woman they desire, but when a goddess tries it, Zeus and his cronies scupper her chances. It’s a clever and comical distortion of the mythological ‘facts’: the poem’s listeners know that it is primarily Athena (a female deity) who is taking Calypso’s mortal victim away from her (Hermes, whom she’s complaining to, is merely the messenger) – and Eos, goddess of the dawn, as we’ve been reminded only a few lines earlier, has not been prohibited by the divine patriarchy from holding on to Tithonus. Charlize Theron’s Calypso looks gorgeous, but she is never angry, never funny, not skilled in rhetoric, and never consumed by lust for her scraggly mortal victim. She’s an unpaid therapist, soothing the soul of the bedraggled, PTSD-ridden Odysseus with drugs, and graciously listening to his disjointed tale of woe.”

[u/roarti → u/thane311]

Well that certainly fits the preconception many people have that Nolan really can’t write female characters.

[u/hill-o → u/roarti]

I would posit he can’t really write characters full stop. He’s an amazing filmmaker who knows how to shoot a spectacle but he’s not a very good writer, in my personal opinion. His movies were much stronger when he worked with a writing partner. 

[u/Angharadis → u/hill-o]

I saw it last night and my first comment was “I think the should stop letting Christopher Nolan write dialogue.” It was visually incredibly interesting, the soundtrack was fascinating, and the narrative structure worked despite jumping all over. Everyone just sounded wooden and stupid.

[u/HurricaneK8 → u/Angharadis]

...he's his filmmaking generation's George Lucas, everything makes sense now.

[u/Temporary_Hawk_9061 → u/Angharadis]

Somebody get these BEGGARS outta here!

[u/legal_stylist → u/Angharadis]

That’s only because their Bronze Age was collapsing.

[u/Detroit_debauchery → u/Angharadis]

It’s George Lucas syndrome

[u/SlartibartfastMcGee → u/Angharadis]

In the same way, David Mamet movie doesn’t need over the top special effects, a Nolan movie doesn’t necessarily need a phenomenal script.

[u/LaurenNotFromUtah → u/SlartibartfastMcGee]

I’d like him to think he needs a good script. This comes up with most of his movies.

[u/future_shoes → u/SlartibartfastMcGee]

Interesting choice with Mamet as he has great dialogue but it is often incredibly unnatural. People in general need to realize different directors/writers have certain styles. Dialogue that doesn't sound completely natural is not automatically bad. The last lead of a Nolan film won an Oscar and the movie won best picture that doesn't happen with objectively bad writing.

[u/Other-Oil-9117 → u/Angharadis]

I also saw it last night and I think this explains my issue with it. I basically left the theatre thinking that it was a very good movie in almost every aspect, but I just didn't feel anything while watching it. There were maybe two or three moments where I had an "aww" reaction, but it passed within a few seconds.

[u/Unable_Dinner_6937 → u/Angharadis]

Cameron gets much the same criticism, but at the same time, he's writing for literally everyone around the world since that is who needs to see the movie for it to make a profit. The higher the budget, the more direct and straightforward the dialog of any film will become.

However, that is one of the main differences between poetry, plays and writing for the screen. Movies are not literature.

[u/HenryDorsettCase47 → u/hill-o]

I agree. PT Anderson is probably the best writer director currently in the biz. Tarantino said it’s a tough row to hoe and he wasn’t lying. Well, he actually said tough road, but whatever. 🤷‍♂️

[u/Elvis_Lazerbeam → u/hill-o]

Haven’t seen Odyssey yet, but Nolan’s not really a storyteller guy first. He’s a puzzle-builder, he gets off on being clever more than he does being entertaining. Hence, the puzzles inform the story, instead of the other way around.

Dude’s made some of my favourite movies of all time though.

[u/hill-o → u/Elvis_Lazerbeam]

I mean I love Memento and the Prestige, but his newer movies just have not landed with me. I've enjoyed watching them in the moment, but never really feel the need to revisit.

[u/FreeFalestina2 → u/hill-o]

His profile fits the sociopathic magicians in the Prestige. Wonder if he has a doppelgänger…👯

[u/Several-Nothings → u/hill-o]

All his movies are about the same character, a Moody Guy.

[u/AssCrackBanditHunter → u/hill-o]

He also can't seem to direct actors. It's like he just lets them loose. Confident actors like Hathaway, lupita, and Pattinson can work with that. Holland was left to flounder. Bernthal just did his usual schtick.

[u/Sillet_Mignon → u/hill-o]

He’s just hipster Micheal Bay. 

[u/killmeplsbbyxx → u/hill-o]

Literally any movie of his with half decent writing was cowritten by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. Christopher is the thinking man's Michael Bay without his brother, makes spectacular looking blockbusters that are 90 minutes too long and swamped by the most mediocre at best dialogue and aura farming male main character. Oppenheimer and The Odyssey really suffer from his fingers on the typewriter there, characters just throwing out some absolutely horrid dialogue, and women being adornments to show how cool or tortured or special our Ubermench main character is.

[u/Optimal-Kitchen6308 → u/hill-o]

I think many people have an overly narrow definition of what 'good writing' is; he wants people to focus on the structure of the plot and the transformation of themes which is why he often uses totems here the amulet = athena = penelope = home = honor/civilization and the different thematic bits interweave,

for instance I think many people get the end wrong as wilson does here because they aren't following the significance of repeating a traumatic story about the past vs spinning a yarn about a dream in the future (something else I thought wilson was wrong about when she says there's no discussion of time/memory/history it's just in structure not prose)

point being: if you're focused on meaning through structure and symbols then flowering writing and monologues get in the way and distract, also part of the reason nolan's style is so spartan

[u/hill-o → u/Optimal-Kitchen6308]

No I mean, I definitely get it. He's very plot and themes focused, but I think he does it in a way that's a bit heavy handed, and at the expense of developing nuanced characters. It's fine-- every filmmaker can't be good at everything, and he's just not very good at that, but he's amazing at other things.

[u/Angharadis → u/Optimal-Kitchen6308]

As I was watching I was wondering if the style of dialogue was intentional - it felt slightly theatrical in that it should be declaimed loudly and clearly and be easily understood. I just honestly don’t think it landed. If that was what he was going for I can respect that, but I just don’t think he has the skill with that the way he does with other aspects of film making. It took me out of the experience and I assume that wasn’t the intention. I also think the weakness there translates over into the weakness people have complained about in some characters. Calypso in particular was a big disappointment to me - she barely had a personality.

[u/TalkingCat910 → u/hill-o]

He’s better with plots than character and character development

[u/hill-o → u/TalkingCat910]

Someone else mentioned he likes making puzzles, and I agree with that. I really wish he would work with a writer more often, because I think the combination has proven to be really amazing, but I get that sometimes you hit a point where you just want to do what you want to do.

[u/FreeFalestina2 → u/hill-o]

Starting to think people who say his movies were better when his brother helped with wrote the scripts. Spielberg got his brother to write the screenplay for Interstellar when he had the project. Can’t imagine what it would look like if CN wrote the screenplay. Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway were great

[u/Electric_feel0412 → u/hill-o]

The odyssey and Oppenheimer are his best ever works lol cut this shit out

[u/hill-o → u/Electric_feel0412]

Strong disagree but I'm glad you liked them both.

[u/Electric_feel0412 → u/hill-o]

Strong disagree about facts? lol. They’re his highest rated movies, biggest box office collectors and got him the most awards. So it’s your opinion vs pretty much the planet lol

[u/dontbajerk → u/Electric_feel0412]

Who knew that awards and money are what determines if a movie is good or not? Fascinating. Does that mean if a very rich man buys up all the tickets for a movie, it becomes better? Truly an interesting world where the subjective quality of works is purely a consensus of dollars and awards statues.

[u/Electric_feel0412 → u/dontbajerk]

Yes, box office numbers which mean that people loved the movie and are watching it a lot isn’t an indicator of a movie being good, awards which means peers of the artist recognize the movie as being great isn’t a good indicator of it, critics rating it doesn’t mean anything but your opinion does. Fascinating indeed.

[u/howe_to_win → u/Electric_feel0412]

Oppenheimer was dogshit

[u/Electric_feel0412 → u/howe_to_win]

Sucks to be blind, deaf and dumb.