Samuel LovePlaying out like a London-based Uncut Gems, Gerard Johnson’s Odyssey is a frantic and stressful journey into the underbelly of the capital’s real estate scene, fronted by an unforgettable performance by Polly Maberly. But in portraying the most stressful week you can imagine, the film itself becomes stressful too as it dips its toe in one too many genres/tones while putting us in company of a truly unlikeable protagonist.
Odyssey opens with Natasha Flynn (Maberly), a self-deluded and debt-ridden estate agent, having a tooth extraction at a private dentist. When her card is declined at payment, Natasha flees – and so begins the most stressful week of her life that sees her chased by loan sharks, dealing with complaints from tenants, managing a young new apprentice, dodging calls, and ultimately being pulled into a London’s criminal underbelly. There’s a lot going on in Natasha’s week, and with that comes a lot of movie. Odyssey struggles with its many spinning plates, and when they start taking on different genres and tones, it does become quite a mess. The film begins as a biting, darkly comic character study set in the fast-paced and dishonest world of real estate, before moving into a neo-noir crime thriller, and ending as a gratuitously violent, over-the-top action with elements of slasher horror. There’s no doubt that director Johnson can handle each of these genres on their own – but whether he can mix them all together like this is something else entirely.
While on the one hand this approach lends itself to the film’s portrayal of the week from hell, it does feel jarring to compare the film’s first and final acts – the evolution between the film’s many genres doesn’t feel particularly organic, and the film is certainly at its strongest in its first act when it feels more grounded. And the film’s ‘protagonist’, Natasha, is so endlessly unlikeable that it’s hard to get too invested in her titular odyssey. Maberly’s performance is out of this world – she makes Natasha an absolute force of charisma and cruelty – but spending almost two hours in her company can be difficult. The script offers little backstory or grounding that might make her more sympathetic, making her downfall feel less tragic, and more deserved. Deadline referred to the character as the “new breed of antihero”, and that couldn’t feel more wrong. Natasha is a hideous person through-and-through.
Despite the rather scattered approach in terms of tone and indeed genre, Odyssey remains a memorable experience packed with raw, tense moments and a committed performance from Maberly in the lead. The film is a gripping Uncut Gems-esque thrill-ride that pulls its protagonist through an onslaught of stress, paranoia and ultimately, drug-fuelled violence. Packed with neon-soaked visuals and a pulsing, uncomfortable score from The The’s Matt Johnson, Odyssey is a compelling and exciting thriller – it’s just a shame it continuously pushes itself too far and becomes somewhat absurd while remaining straight-faced. Come for the first act and Maberly’s performance, and see how you get on.
