Charlize Theron has long been celebrated for her versatility in front of the camera.
On Monday in South Korea, the Oscar-winning actress showed that her shape-shifting talents extend well beyond acting, stepping out in a strikingly unconventional look while promoting The Odyssey.
Theron, 50, who stars as Calypso in Christopher Nolan’s epic film, blended boardroom polish with futuristic edge, pairing a pinstripe shirt with a wraparound plastic skirt and dramatic long leather gloves.
Posing with Nolan and co-star Matt Damon, she elevated the daring ensemble with polka-dot stockings, a glimpse of lingerie-inspired detailing and a lace underlay, adding a provocative twist to the sharply styled outfit.
Nolan had extra reason to enjoy the promotional stop, with the event arriving as the movie surged to an impressive $450 million at the global box office.
Charlize Theron showcased her fashion range in a bold, eccentric ensemble in South Korea on Monday while continuing the promotional tour for The Odyssey
Standing alongside director Christopher Nolan and co-star Matt Damon, Theron completed the standout look with a tousled bob hairstyle
Her futuristic skirt offered a striking contrast to the film she was promoting
The film is an adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic the Odyssey, which sees the titular Greek King embark on a perilous journey home after the Trojan War in a bid to reunite with his beloved wife Penelope.
Matt is starring as the titular hero Odysseus, while Devil Wears Prada icon Anne Hathaway plays his devoted queen, who is forced to fend off potential suitors in her husband’s absence.
While Charlize’s Calypso is the nymph who keeps Odysseus trapped on her island, Ogygia, for seven years after the Trojan War.
Nolan has reached a career high with his epic take on Homer’s The Odyssey, with five star reviews for the star-studded movie flooding in from around the globe soon after it was released.
The Odyssey has achieved a near-perfect score on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes with a current standing of 99 per cent.
That 99 per cent score places Nolan’s 13th feature film at the top of the pile of his past movies with The Dark Knight trailing behind with a 94 per cent critic score.
She nailed the ensemble as she plugged the huge box office hit
The actress, 50, who plays Calypso in the epic Christopher Nolan film, combined edgy chic with business style as she wore a pinstripe shirt with a wraparound plastic skirt paired with long leather gloves
Charlize and Matt chatted on-stage about the epic
The reviews for The Odyssey are almost universal in their soaring praise and five star ratings.
The Daily Mail’s Brian Viner declared that ‘Nolan’s film – its star-studded cast led by Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Zendaya – is a glorious cinematic experience, a triumph both of story-telling and movie-making.’
Viner added: ‘I rarely say this of movies nearly three hours long – one viewing simply isn’t enough.’
She looked stunning in the kooky look
The trio spoke to the admiring crowd at the South Korean event
Peter Bradshaw for the Guardian in another five star review went one step further, writing that ‘Nolan goes god-tier with a breathtaking epic of men, monsters and moral metamorphosis.’
‘This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.’
Any minor criticisms hone in on Nolan’s choice to modernise the dialogue and deviate from his source material.
John Nugent for Empire writes that ‘it is as elegant and economical an adaptation as it’s possible to make of such a lengthy tome, and you don’t need a Classics degree to understand it. Some purists may bristle at the liberties taken with the text, with significant omissions.’
The eye-popping success of the movie has thrilled the all-star cast
‘The dialogue inevitably loses some of the poetry and lyricism of the original text; no dactylic hexameter here. But what it loses in faithfulness, it gains in visual and structural poetry.’
Writing for The Times though, historian Mary Beard said ‘I liked that Telemachus (Tom Holland) refers to Odysseus as ‘Dad’ (though I suspect some viewers may feel differently). This is an epic, and a myth, in the here and now, not set in a hoary past.’
David Rooney for The Hollywood Reporter calls it ‘a meditative action movie both immense and intimate, albeit one whose flow is impeded by the inherently episodic nature of the nonlinear source material and some questionable casting choices.’
Rooney singles out Tom Holland, who plays the son of Matt Damon’s Odysseus, Telemachus, deciding that ‘while he is always an appealing screen presence, he is wrong for the role.’
She looked sensational in the ensemble
‘Like [Robert] Pattinson, the Brit actor plays his character with an American accent. But he comes across as, well, Peter Parker in a tunic, sapping the gravitas from Telemachus’ path to maturity.’
Deadline’s Gregory Nussen disagreed though, calling Holland’s performance ‘his strongest one to date.’
‘His performance certainly seems tinged with the courageous naivety of Spider-Man, insisting on trying to influence those much more cunning and physically capable than he,’ he wrote. ‘Holland may be playing a child, but his performance is bursting with a newfound maturity.’
Other critics hailed the female actors.
The South African beauty chatted to British film producer Emma Thomas
She showed off her kooky nail choice by rocking yellow tipped manicure
Ahead of the review embargo lifting the film had received heaps of attention for all the wrong reasons – sparking backlash over its ‘bizarre’ casting, being accused of fuelling ‘brutal repression’ and sending Elon Musk into meltdown.
Nolan recently defended his decision to cast Kenyan actress Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, after Musk called the casting ‘historically inaccurate.’
The likes of Clarisse Loughrey in her five star review for The Independent said the film is ‘brought to life by a cast of seemingly thousands – but it’s the women (among them Anne Hathaway and Samantha Morton) who steal the show.’
RogerEbert.com Editor-at-Large Matt Zoller Seitz meanwhile called Nolan’s casting ‘not just defensible but inspiring.’
