Review: The Odyssey — ★★★★½

The critical verdict is not close. At 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, The Odyssey is the best-reviewed film Christopher Nolan has made, clearing Oppenheimer and Dunkirk in a career that has not lacked for acclaim. Consensus of that strength usually invites suspicion; here it has been matched by a 264 million dollar global opening, the largest of his career.

India has responded in kind, and specifically in premium formats. The film opened to 17.40 crore net from 8,413 shows, ahead of Oppenheimer's 14.45 crore, and has now passed 135 crore net. That places it inside the twenty highest-grossing Hollywood releases India has seen. The pattern is familiar from Tenet and Oppenheimer, but the scale is not.

Our verdict is a commercial one as much as a critical one: this is a film whose ambition and its market have lined up, which is rarer than either alone. The half-star we are holding back is the one Nolan's detractors have always reached for, and fifteen days of Indian returns suggest very few of them bought tickets.