Kate McClory

As an English major, this movie means a lot to me. What I love most is how it highlights the importance of art, literature, and other creative subjects, while also showing how damaging it can be when people belittle the things someone is passionate about. It’s a beautiful reminder that creativity has value, even if the world doesn’t always see it that way. Robin Williams is incredible here and will always be one of the greatest. I loved everything about his performance, and Robert Sean Leonard was absolutely heartbreaking. This is one of those films that I genuinely think everyone should watch at least once!

I’ve never been the biggest Christopher Nolan fan, but I’ve always admired how ambitious his films are, and this is one of the ones that worked for me the most—even if I still have plenty of issues with it. My biggest complaint is the same one I have with a lot of Nolan’s movies: his obsession with non-linear storytelling and confusing editing. Instead of adding to the experience, it ends up weakening the emotional core. The Odyssey is, at its heart, a poem about love, family, longing, and what it means to find your way home. Too often, Nolan seems more interested in the scale of the journey than the story at its center. What holds the film back for me is that the characters never feel as fully realized as they should. The cast does a great job with the material they’re given, but the screenplay rarely slows down long enough to let those relationships breathe. Anne Hathaway is especially great as Penelope, even if I wish the script had given her more to do. Ultimately, I think Nolan’s biggest weakness here is that he values technical ambition over character and emotion. It’s an incredibly beautiful, impressively crafted film, but I think it would’ve been even stronger if he had trusted the emotional heart of Homer’s poem!