Elliot Page is the Quiet Soul of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'

This article contains mild spoilers for "The Odyssey." The previous two films in Christopher Nolan's oeuvre ("Tenet," "Oppenheimer") are constructed in a manner where the past, present and future are all in conversation with one another about how a single violent action can cause an overlapping ripple effect. The Academy Award-winning director ("Oppenheimer") continues this trend with his gargantuan adaptation of "The Odyssey," which depicts the infamous Trojan Horse attack as the thematic lynchpin that informs the story's journey. In most screen adaptations of Homer's epic poem, the wooden equestrian is usually depicted being wheeled behind enemy lines easy peasy as opposed to Nolan's, where it's slowly dragged across sand while the Greek soldiers inside are at the mercy of their bodily elements. It sells the internal rot that's soon to be unleashed upon Troy and therefore, changes the trajectory of the world. What I found most interesting is how Nolan interprets the Trojan Horse's lack of a conscience, which belongs to Elliot Page's Sinon on the other side. In one of the opening moments of "The Odyssey," we watch as Sinon, the lone soldier on the beaches of Troy, witnesses a group of Trojans ride on horseback toward the towering statue within the tides. He's pinned to it with spears while explaining to the Trojans that it's a gift for their goddess Athena, unbeknownst that Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his men are currently inside waiting for an ambush. It's through this plausible deniability that this gift is able to infiltrate the gates of Troy, and ultimately culminate in the city's collapse. The trials and tribulations that Odysseus faces in his effort to make it back home to Ithaca — where his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland) are waiting — are not only a reflection of his hubris, but his guilt. Sinon plays a big part in that. He isn't even a character in Homer's "The Odyssey," but rather "The Aeneid" from Roman poet Virgil later down the line. But Sinon's involvement here brings a whole new level of pathos to Odysseus. Page's performance shows that even small parts can leave the largest impact. In just a handful of scenes, we're witness to the transformation of one of Odysseus' most loyal soldiers into an aggrieved spirit who acts as the film's moral compass. When Page was announced as part of the cast, it broke a lot of stupid people's brains. In case you weren't aware, Page came out as a trans man at the end of 2020, and has only continued to live his best life since. What should have been an exciting casting announcement (especially since "The Odyssey" is the first film he's done with Nolan in the 16 years since "Inception") was met with one of the most hostile waves of transphobia in the entertainment industry this century. Page soon became entrenched in countless bullying hate campaigns from conservative online grifters (and an unnamed trillionaire who loves ketamine more than his children will ever love him). These losers further lost their minds upon learning that Academy Award-winning actor Lupita Nyong'o would be playing Helen of Troy, as if they couldn't grasp the notion of a war being fought over an actual goddess in human form. It didn't matter though as both casting decisions were thrust in a faux culture war borne out of these chuds' not-so thinly veiled bigotry. They like to throw around the words "woke" and "DEI" in a derogatory manner as white supremacist dog whistles, as if it doesn't immediately discredit whatever point they were trying to make about one of the most consistently adapted stories ever. It's ironic that these grifters seemed so against the movie when there's a sequence in this that speaks directly to their brand of cruelty. Samantha Morton makes a meal as the witch Circe, who slowly transforms Odysseus' crew into pigs upon finding her place on the island of Aeaea. It's a real show-stopper sequence in which the practical makeup effects and upsetting sound design sell the intensity of the body horror transformations. It actually felt like I was watching magic unfold before my eyes. Rather than her seducing Odysseus, she instead lambasts him for allowing such beasts, fueled by their aimless rage, to roam free in their human "disguises." It's one of many examples in which the consequences of Odysseus' actions regarding the Trojan Horse come back to haunt his conscience. Odysseus' reunion with Sinon in the Underworld is anything but a happy one, with the latter putting him in his place for refusing to be honest about their part in Troy's gift. Their conversation amid countless other lost souls serves as a reminder that the intentions of our destructive decisions mean nothing to the dead. It's a lesson that Odysseus has to learn time and time again throughout the course of the film. There's also a great foundation laid with the relationship between Sinon and Robert Pattinson's Antinous, and how it parallels Odysseus' worst impulses. Page's performance here informs an act of atonement in the last hour of "The Odyssey" that deeply moved me in a way I didn't see coming. It falls in line with the throughline of following Zeus' Law, otherwise known as the Greek equivalent of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" lest the gods be present in unlikely human forms. Barring any religious connotations, it's a lesson that we seem to have abandoned when it comes to displaying dignity, honesty and accountability among the people we see every day, especially those in the transgender community. To see one of the most popular auteurs working today center the emotional catharsis around a metatextual affirmation of a trans actor in one of the biggest movies of the summer sets a great example, and made me respect "The Odyssey" even more. "The Odyssey" is now playing in theaters nationwide. Go see it in one!