u/ThomasBombadil

"The Plague in Deadwood?"

Below is a written rendition of what I'm calling "decentralized storytelling" in Nolan's The Odyssey:

Dramatic dialogue between two characters in a scene; that scene falls away and the dialogue loses its dramatic sense and assumes the function of a framing device for a new time-space. The resulting moment can extend out or may be less than breath as the film makes another advance, often using dialogue as voice-over to cue another different time-space.

I am using the word "dramatic" very specifically, to mean this: theatrical tension that plays out for the audience. For instance, Robert Pattison and Tom Holland have many dramatic exchanges. On the other hand, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron have very little drama between them.

Analysis Below

I think "non-linear" is not sufficient to describe this style of plotting in Nolan's films. I think a better term could be to call it "decentralized storytelling".

Moments of character drama are disembodied and made into framing devices, repeatedly such that after happening a few times, the story of the film feels like it happens from no particular point of focus. (Another word that comes to mind is "survey".)

To specify, The Odyssey (2026) takes place just before the final leg of Odysseus' journey to Ithaca. That is the diegetic time setting of the film. The story moves forward when Odysseus leaves Calypso's island and events unfold at Ithaca; meanwhile the many plotted events of the story occur within character retellings. Here is a non-exhaustive list: Odysseus to Calypso; Calypso to Odysseus; Eumaeus to Telemachus; Menaleus to Telemachus; Odysseus to Eurylochus; Penelope to Telemachus; Odysseus to Penelope; etc. To reiterate, what's striking isn't that so much of the plot occurs within retellings; what's striking is that scenes constantly erode; they lose their dramatic sense and assume the sense of a framing device.

Two significant instances of decentralized storytelling happen >!in both of Odysseus and Penelope's scenes together at the end of the film: first when he speaks to her in disguise; second after the fight in the hall when Odysseus is wounded. In the former moment, their conversation is quite beautiful and charged, arguably bolstered if also chopped down when upstaged for the extended reflection on and final conclusion of the Sack of Troy.^1 In the latter conversation, as Odysseus is wounded in her arms, his lines to Penelope feel stunningly ill-fitted for a dramatic exchange. But do eventually find their footing, when the film edit advances and reveals Odysseus on his boat, being met there by Penelope for their voyage west. I would say that the decentralization has varied emotional results; when reflecting on Troy, I do think the film wins something beautiful. But when advancing to the journey west, I feel like the film momentarily becomes a husk; Hathaway and Damon are present with one another but they are mannequins standing in, holding things in suspension until that the film edit can relocate them somewhere else.!<

Is the entire film like this? No, not the entire film. Certain moments stand out as grounded, embodied, and riveting scenes... Circe's island; the excursion to Hades; trapped with Polyphemus; the giants.

And of course I acknowledge this is of course not new to Christopher Nolan's work. But I am struck by how prominent the style's become in his last two movies.

Do you notice this style? Do you enjoy it? What are audiences making of this storytelling approach?

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^1: if my analysis here is getting convoluted, consider that I'm only reflecting what the moment in the film is doing. >!The turn to the Sack of Troy is both Odysseus' reflection on the event as he speaks in with Penelope and also the film's final playing out of the full event. His reflection reveals his regret, which opens up into into the full wrath of the Aegeans and a new cinematic experience for the viewer to witness. Meanwhile, our presence with Penelope has not entirely vanished, and all Damon's words are diegetically meant for Hathaway; but that scene has drifted into a far secondary to the battle in front of us. To the extent that Odysseus' sharing his regret with his wife was an emotional core, the sliding movement away (even if to explicate on those emotions) leave me unsure what if anything Nolan is willing to stake himself on.!<