Elliot Page shines as the emotional heart of The Odyssey’s record-breaking opening

So much for “go woke, go broke,” eh?

In spite of the laughable conservative outcry over certain casting choices in The Odyssey (namely Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, and trans actor Elliot Page as a Greek soldier), the Christopher Nolan-directed adaptation of the Greek classic went on to have an opening weekend that was—fittingly!—epic.

How about we take this to the next level?

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Since Thursday night preview screenings, the film has already earned $124 million at the U.S. box office (the third biggest opening of the year behind family-friendly animated fare Toy Story 5 & The Super Mario Galaxy Movie) and over $264 million worldwide, the biggest premiere of Nolan’s blockbuster career.

Plus, critics & audiences alike have been showering it with praise: The Odyssey stands tall at a 95% “Fresh” rating on RottenTomatoes (once again, a record for Nolan’s career) with 97% approval on the fan-voted Popcornmeter.

So, either the bigoted crowd who threatened to boycott it because of its “woke” ensemble just proved they actually don’t have the power to tank a film’s box office like they thought, or they went and saw it anyway—and realized it absolutely rocks.

And, honestly? We hope they’re embarrassed. One, because any of their preemptive complaints about the movie were just openly racist & transphobic to begin. And two, because of how overblown it all was!

For instance, real-life supervillain Elon Musk fanned the flames with the theory that Elliot Page would be playing mythic Greek hero Achilles, b*tching that the actor couldn’t possibly embody the revered warrior—who, mind you, is a fictional character! Well, guess what, Mimi? He wasn’t Achilles after all!

(Besides, have you seen how shredded Page looks these days? He definitely looks battle-ready to us!)

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As was revealed shortly before the film premiered, the actor actually plays Sinon, a younger cousin of Odysseus who wasn’t in Homer’s original Odyssey at all, but rather appeared in Virgil’s classical poem Aeneid, as a crucial figure in the Trojan War.

Ultimately, Page’s Sinon is barely on screen for more than five minutes of The Odyssey‘s near-three hour runtime. But in adapting centuries-old Greek myth for modern movie-goers, Nolan—with help from Page’s acting chops—makes him one of the most crucial figures of the entire saga, transphobes be damned.

*Spoilers ahead for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.*

In case you don’t know, The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus’s (Matt Damon) perilous, 20-year journey home to Ithaca after orchestrating the infamous “Trojan Horse” plot that ended the Trojan War. In Nolan’s re-telling, the hero is racked with guilt over betraying the gods to achieve victory, a fateful act of deceit that costs the lives of many.

One of those lives is Sinon’s, who we see early on draw the literal short stick that means he’ll have to pretend to be a deserter of his army so that he can convince the Trojans to accept the gift of the giant wooden horse into their walls. The plan works, but Sinon is in the line of fire, quickly killed in the ensuing chaos.

Later on, during the long trip home, Odysseus and his men must pass through the Underworld, where they encounter ghosts—or “shades”—of those they’ve lost, including Sinon’s. (Turns out the one image of Page in the film we saw pre-release was from this scene, featuring the actor’s face covered in black ash.) It’s a haunting and heartbreaking moment, especially as Sinon chides Odysseus for using him as pawn, furthering his guilt & grief.

Page, for his part, makes the most of his few minutes of screen time, imbuing Sinon with a presence that lingers in Odysseus’s memory—and the film itself—long after he’s gone. In British film publication Empire, writer Ben Travis hails the actor’s work as “rageful and righteous, but tragic and touching,” calling Page the soul of the movie: “It’s an incredibly powerful performance that looms large over the whole movie, framing Odysseus’ journey—and personal failings—across the runtime.”

And in the film’s final act, when Odysseus finally makes it home after two decades away, he disguises himself as a beggar to hide from his wife Penelope’s (Anne Hathaway) vengeful suitors, choosing an alias of great significance to him: Sinon, “the bravest man I’ve ever known,” he says.

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Of course, Sinon is not identified within the film as trans, but the fact Nolan chose to cast an out trans actor as “the bravest man” Odysseus has ever known is remarkable, speaking volumes about the kind of story the filmmaker wanted to tell with The Odyssey—and where stands on the whole “anti-woke” movement.

It all just makes the conservative outcry look even more ridiculous in retrospect: Page wasn’t even playing their precious Achilles to begin with—he was playing a man with an even more pivotal role in the Trojan War, a man whose act of bravery made him one of the most important heroes of classical Greek literature!

Check out more praise for Elliot Page’s performance in The Odyssey below:

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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