Natasha (Polly Maberly) is a fast-talking, busy estate agent manager (motto: live and let live) whose upwardly mobile image hides a coke habit and spiralling debts. Unfortunately, she owes a great deal of money to a lot of people, including some shady characters. They offer her one way to clear her account – to hide someone they’ve kidnapped. She sees only one way out of her predicament… to find The Viking (Mikael Persbrandt).
Directed and co-written (with Austin Collings) by Gerard Johnson, Odyssey is an anxiety-inducing, bleak drama that spirals into an orgy of violence. Maberly is remarkable as a completely unlikeable character who’s so self-absorbed that she deserves an apocalyptic downfall, but it’s just as satisfying when that doesn’t come and she (and The Viking) take things into their own hands.
The film is photographed in a claustrophobic fashion by Korsshan Schlauer, using wide lenses to give a curvature to the image and occasional vignetting, highlighting the constantly fretting Natasha. The camera is almost constantly moving in the style of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. When we first see Natasha in her work environment (following a rather nasty tooth extraction), it could easily be an Office-style spoof, as there’s plenty of humour in the first act to counter her mounting problems. This soon dissipates as the situation gets grimmer.
Odyssey is a bleak, unnerving experience that showcases a breed of person who prioritises money and themselves, and damn everyone else. It’s not an easy watch, and the climax won’t satisfy everyone, but it’s well-made and compelling.
ODYSSEY is available on Blu-ray and DVD from December 8th and on digital platforms from December 22nd.
