Christopher Nolan’s Un-Greek Odyssey

“Loved the book, didn’t care for the movie.” A truly good book is not easily compressed into a two- or three-hour format. Difficult choices must be made concerning what parts of the narrative to include, how to present the characters, how to construct the dialogue, and what details need highlighting. We typically judge such efforts by their fidelity to the source material: Can any person watching this movie have an accurate idea of what’s in the book? If not, has the filmmaker at least captured the spirit or the essence of the thing?