Beaming Lupita Nyong'o wows in a plunging dress as she wins rave reviews for The Odyssey after backlash over Christopher Nolan's casting choices

Lupita Nyong'o has won rave reviews for her performance as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey, and she couldn't hide her smile as she stepped out in New York on Thursday.

The Oscar winner looked gorgeous in a silk halterneck dress as she left her Midtown hotel for another round of press to promote Christopher Nolan's epic movie.

Lupita beamed as she strutted outside in her colourful summer dress, a day after the movie's review embargo lifted and she was singled out for her 'vivid' performance.  

Elon Musk, the owner of X, was among the public figures to express his opposition to the actress, 43, being cast as Helen of Troy in the film. 

Helen is the ravishing daughter of Zeus whose 'face launched a thousand ships,' in that her seduction by Troy's prince Paris resulted in the Trojan War.

Lupita, who won an Oscar for the 2013 historical drama 12 Years a Slave, will also feature in the film as Helen's sister Clytemnestra.

Her hiring provoked a fierce response on X, including from conservative pundit Matt Walsh, who fumed that nobody 'on the planet' regards Lupita as the world's greatest beauty but that Nolan 'knows that he would be called racist if he gave 'the most beautiful woman' role to a white woman.'

Musk, who owns the social media platform, responded to Walsh by writing: 'True,' eliciting pushback by outspoken liberals like Alec Baldwin and Jimmy Kimmel.

Speaking to Elle, Lupita refused to be drawn into the backlash narrative, stating: 'I'm very supportive of Chris's intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world.'

She added: 'I'm not spending my time thinking of a defence. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.'

Esquire's review was among those to reference the backlash in their  write-up, insisting the only 'travesty' about casting Lupita as Helen of Troy is the 'waste of her talent in such a small role.' 

Clarisse Loughrey in her five star review for The Independent meanwhile said the film is 'brought to life by a cast of seemingly thousands – but it's the women who steal the show.' 

RogerEbert.com Editor-at-Large Matt Zoller Seitz called Nolan's casting 'not just defensible but inspiring.' 

Financial Times Danny Leigh said Lupita 'deserves more screen time', labelling the performance as 'vivid and bristling'.

Nolan addressed the casting controversy in a TIME interview by drawing a parallel to his approach on his film Interstellar.

'For 'Interstellar,' you're looking at: What is the best speculation of the future? When you're looking at the ancient past, it's actually the same thing,' the filmmaker said. 'What is the best speculation, and how can I use that to create a world?'

He added that he expects some disagreement. 'Hopefully they'll enjoy the film, even if they don't agree with everything,' he pointed out. 'We had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar. But you just don't want people to think that you took it on frivolously.'

With over 60 reviews in so far, The Odyssey has achieved a near-perfect score on review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes with a current standing of 96%. 

That 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% critic score.

The reviews for The Odyssey are almost universal in their soaring praise and five star ratings.