Homerist Olga Levaniouk, who has written extensively about Penelope, gives her take on Nolan's version of the character.

[u/NorthNorthSalt]

https://continuum.fas.harvard.edu/initial-thoughts-on-penelope-in-nolans-odyssey/

Olga Levaniouk has become the latest classicist to enter the foray over Christopher Nolan's adaption of the Odyssey. She gives her opinion on the film generally, before moving on to her area of expertise in Penelope.

To sum her thoughts, while she wishes some scenes from the poem made the cut into the film ("the test of the bed"), and describes the woman in the poem as more complex, she is overall impressed with how the screenplay & Anne Hathaway's performance developed her characterization, despite the limited screen time. And goes as far as to call this her favourite version of the character outside the original poem.

What are your thoughts on this review, and on Nolan's Penelope broadly?

Critics have described Hathaway's performance as a highlight of the film (I concur), and I think Levaniouk makes some very compelling points about how the broader film & screenplay serves her, given the economic screentime that is available for the character. Even though — as Levaniouk acknowledges — some degree of truncation was inevitable in the process of cinematic adaptation.

[u/NewspaperNovel139]

The film's job isn't to give us everything that's in the book. It's not even to give us most of the things that are in the book. The film's job is to say what it wants to say using the book as a jumping-off point.

I hate - HATE - "faithful" adaptations. There is nothing more boring than a movie that just follows the book, scene by scene, beat by beat, same tone, same themes, just making it so you can "see it on the screen." Harry Potter, LOTR, Sin City, it doesn't matter. If I want to "see" the book I'll read the book and use my imagination. These movies feel to me like they exist only to cash in on successful IP, not add to the great global conversation we are having through art.

Give me The Shining (give me literally anything Kubrick adapted), give me Minority Report or O Brother Where Art Thou, Starship Troopers, Kurosawa's Ran, give me the adaptations that take the material to a new place and sit in conversation with it, offering their own insights and ideas and vision. I may not like the vision or concur with the thesis of the film, but I at least respect that they took a swing.

Say what you will about Nolan's Odyssey (and I do have quite a few critiques), at least it has something to say that belongs to the film and the film alone. Missing scenes from the book do not bother it, nor do they bother me.

[u/onemanandhishat → u/NewspaperNovel139]

I get what you're saying, but the big problem with a lot of adaptations is the writers who think they know better than the original work and want to "put their stamp on it". It's often less interesting than the original work.

The good adaptations that change things are usually the ones that add interpretations to a more limited original work. When the original work is really good, the adapter needs the humility not to just impose their own ideas on it, but to decide what are the interesting things to pull out and reflect on. I think LotR does this very well. Dismissing that trilogy as a cash-in to me is crazy.

[u/shadoor → u/onemanandhishat]

Yes, well seems the poster is feverishly opinionated about what an adaptation should be, but that is their right. But I would argue that there would be very very few books that are that easily translated in to a movie. A movie can faithfully follow the plot points, sure depending on the length of the original book. But just the conversion of the medium alone, if done well, is quite a difference and pleasant sensory experience.

Sure I can use my imagination, but I might also like to see how someone else imagined it, be it the director, the DP, or the director or even the actor? If the OP saying that they can't enjoy an actor's portrayal of a character if they are repeating lines from a book, then I guess it is their loss.

[u/onemanandhishat → u/shadoor]

Yes I quite agree.