In the London Review of Books, Emily Wilson turns her attention to Christopher Nolan's lavish action-movie treatment of a Homeric epic. The piece suggests that the film works well enough as summer escapism, while also inviting a closer look at what happens when ancient poetry is reshaped as a modern blockbuster.
Wilson's essay appears to balance amusement with criticism. From the snippet, Nolan's familiar style of jumps, twists and large-scale spectacle is central to the discussion, with the review weighing how those techniques fit, or clash, with material drawn from one of the foundational works of Greek literature.
The article also hints at Wilson's personal connection to Homer, underscored by the description's reference to Nolan reading at least the first line of her work. That detail gives the review an added layer, connecting a contemporary filmmaker's adaptation to the perspective of a scholar and translator who knows the source material intimately.
Rather than treating the movie simply as entertainment, the essay seems to use it as a way to think about adaptation itself: how myth survives, how character changes on screen, and how an ancient poem can be turned into a $250 million cinematic event. The result is a literary review that also speaks to the wider appeal, and limits, of prestige blockbuster filmmaking.
