Christopher Nolan’s movies are famous for being hard to follow. From Memento to Tenet, his films typically require multiple viewings to fully understand what exactly happened and, often most importantly, when it happened.

In a sense, The Odyssey is an exception to that rule. Like the Dark Knight trilogy, Nolan’s adaptation of the ancient Greek epic is relatively straightforward. The plot unfurls naturally and ends neatly without any mind-blowing twists or turns. And yet, there’s still one very good reason to watch The Odyssey a second time, and it has everything to do with the character who gives this story its name.

Odysseus, played in the movie by Matt Damon, is typically defined in Greek mythology by his intelligence. He’s not necessarily the strongest guy around, but he’s the most cunning. That’s how he came up with the idea for the Trojan Horse in the first place, and that’s how he overcomes most of the obstacles in Homer's Odyssey. But on a first viewing of Nolan's film, that intelligence isn’t always so obvious.

Take the Cyclops. Odysseus inadvertently leads his men into a trap when they........

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