South by Southwest Film Festival 2025 – On the surface, Natasha Flynn (Polly Maberly) projects utter confidence in director Gerard Johnson‘s feature Odyssey. As a London real estate agent, she closes one deal before moving onto the next. She frequently wears a Bluetooth earpiece and has no time for small conversations, or really much human interaction that doesn’t involve her own interests. Yet, beneath the surface, she’s in a lot of debt, which pushes Johnson’s films into some dark and thrilling territory.

The film opens with a close-up of a dentist yanking out one of Natasha’s teeth. After the procedure, she’s told her card was declined. Not much later, she listens to one voicemail after the other telling her about money she owes the dentist office, coupled with various other loans and mounting bills. Yes, Natasha is super successful, but she can’t climb out of a hole and clear her multiple debts, no matter how well business is going. Her success is built on some shady business deals and shaky loans that she can’t afford. She’s in over her head.

Odyssey plays a lot with presentation. For instance, selling a house is all about presentation and appearance. At one point, Natasha explains to an intern named Dylan, played by Jasmine Blackborow, to embellish. Turn a property’s negatives, such as an overgrown garden, or remote location, into positives. Again, it’s all about spinning a situation and putting a happy face on it. This relates to Natasha’s character because she doesn’t let on that her own success involved shortcuts and massive debt. She wears her earpiece and focuses on the next sale, nothing more.

Yet, as the film progresses, Natasha can’t maintain the facade. Loan sharks demand more and more. In that regard, Maberly offers quite a memorable performance, conveying her character’s increased stress that pushes her closer and closer to the edge and total collapse. This is especially true of a particular restaurant scene between she and Dylan. Natasha initially comes across as cool and collected, again doling out advice to Dylan, before lashing out about the food and berating the waiter. This scene underscores Natasha’s perilous situation and the weight of her debts. The more she evades and pushes off payments, the more her lenders demand more from her. It starts to consume every aspect of her life. Atop of that, her fellow employees fret over a potential takeover. When one employee tries to warn about that, Natasha totally dismisses her.

In contrast to Natasha’s unraveling and the violent loan sharks stands the performance of Mikael Persbrandt, who provides gravitas to the increasingly violent film. He’s a good counterweight and mentor of sorts to Natasha, though with a film like this, it’s unclear who the protagonist can actually trust. Still, his performance and character are one of the film’s strongest aspects, even if he doesn’t enter the picture until the halfway mark.

Overall, Odyssey is a sharp and bleak thriller. It shows the impact of a real estate agent’s debts and what exactly she’ll do to maintain her status and the success she’s built. This film won’t be for everyone, especially its darker turns, but it’s quite the engaging ride.