Emily Wilson Criticizes Christopher Nolan’s Script in Scathing Essay

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Atlantic has proved to be a massive box office heavyweight for Universal, hauling a $90 million second frame and lifting its domestic cume to $289.3 million. But the film’s grand scale and box office triumphs have earned it a fiercely hostile reception from one of the literary world’s foremost classical scholars. Emily Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania whose translation of Homer’s epic poem became a cultural milestone, turned her critical eye toward the silver screen in a review that quickly went viral.

Literary Backlash: Emily Wilson Destroys Nolan’s Script

Writing in the London Review of Books, Wilson pulled no punches regarding the film’s narrative choices, character depth, and overall execution. Although she initially hoped that the director’s engagement with classical themes would elevate the material, she found the result lacking.

“I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters,” Wilson wrote. “But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.”

Emily Wilson, classicist and translator, via the London Review of Books

Wilson argued that the feature lacks fundamental elements that define the original epic, stating that it has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war and suffers from abysmal writing. Her critique extended across multiple interviews, including remarks to the Sunday Times where she noted that the story failed to land emotionally because the characters lack true Homeric depth.

Box Office Dominance and Premium Format Records

While the academic critique resonated across literary circles, ticket buyers continued to pack theaters in massive numbers. According to Deadline, Universal’s tentpole posted a muscular $90 million second weekend, tying with Top Gun: Maverick for the 12th spot on the all-time list of best sophomore frames. Enhanced formats such as IMAX, PLFs, and 70MM accounted for 57% of the film’s second-weekend gross, demonstrating a strong appetite among moviegoers for premium presentations.

The historical TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles recorded $2.48M in total sales and pre-sales through its fifth week, surpassing the venue’s run for Nolan’s previous film Oppenheimer. The global tally for the Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, John Leguizamo, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron vehicle now stands at $639.6M.

Thematic Departures: Guilt, Troy, and the Burden of Xenia

Beyond the box office receipts and literary sparring, the film introduces stark thematic shifts from Homer’s text. As The Atlantic notes, the cinematic narrative frames the Trojan horse not merely as a stroke of military genius, but as a deep moral failure. In this version, the ruse haunts Odysseus with guilt and shame for an entire decade, intertwining his journey with the memory of a priestess killed at an altar during the fall of Troy.

The narrative also emphasizes xenia, the ancient Bronze Age law of hospitality and protection for strangers under the god Zeus. In the film’s opening sequence in Ithaca, suitors tear down this foundational covenant by overrunning the hero’s home. Yet despite her severe condemnation of the script’s execution, Wilson acknowledged a silver lining in the cultural disruption caused by the blockbuster.

“translations of Odyssey, including mine, are flying off the shelves”

Emily Wilson, classicist and translator

Wilson expressed hope that the film might encourage college administrators to reconsider cutting literature, language and history departments, noting that the cinematic event successfully drives readers back to classical texts even if the cinematic vehicle itself fell short of her literary standards. She added that Nolan is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and she is grateful.