With Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s twelfth film, story-telling comes brilliantly alive as he triumphs here with a story exploring the actual prophets of science in the twentieth century with his aptly titled character study of the brilliant physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Nolan doesn’t just stop at the assembly and discovery of science though. He uncovers the consequences of Oppenheimer’s innovation and what some would call ‘genius insight’ into the man himself. There might be other words one could use to describe him as well – but for this film, Dr. Oppenheimer might have been the man who knew too much and arguably that cost him quite a bit personally. Additionally, the so-called lab rat of his atomic bomb, namely the planet Earth, suffered the expense of it at the time and of course we all know how troubling it all still is in present day with an unpredictable future as well.

But that’s another story, and the one here opens many years pre-detonation and several after, with timelines zoning back and forth without losing the audience in doing so. As much as the switch between black & white and colour shots. It’s done for relevance and tonal quality and works throughout. But what we see most apparent is the foreboding guilt of it all arises early as we watch a young Robert J. Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), leave a poisoned apple for a university professor, and we watch in almost horror as he almost wipes out the Nobel Prize winning physicist Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh). From here, we follow Oppenheimer’s rise to the upper echelons of contemporary theoretical physics, which he single-handedly introduces to an at-war America. When talk of the weaponization of nuclear power crosses the Atlantic from war torn Europe, it is to Oppenheimer that the US Army turn to and one man in particular who leads this charge, General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon). The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book ‘American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer’ by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and learns much of its politics from within these pages. However not completely.

This movie seems to start right in the middle of its story and as a viewer you need to claw your way through the dense foliage to find its beginnings and what comes afterwards. The first two scenes of the movie are titled “Fission” and “Fusion.” And there are no time periods specified by the font caption however, the differences in various points in history are distinguished by where J. Robert Oppenheimer is located during select points in his life.  For seconds at a time, the film will change its photography from vibrant color to black and white, for example.  The characters will either look more aged with grey hair and older or at others, during a younger time in their lives. At one point Oppenheimer is being recruited by Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr), to head the department of a new kind of weapons development. There is another time period where he is being interrogated in a small room by a governmental suit and tie committee whose name is never mentioned. Another storyline has him in his classroom or debating and working with colleagues or yet another he is shown observing his progress with building the atomic bomb among a collection of other engineers and scientists in the desert town that was specifically built under his request – Los Alamos, New Mexico. The place that we now know housed the now infamous “Manhattan Project” under the order of Colonel Groves, to conduct his work and research while in plain sight. 

The film also covers Oppenheimer’s association with possible suspects of the Communist Party during the stressful pre-cold war era of McCarthyism.  Questions arise if his reliable brother Frank (Dylan Arnold), is a communist or even asking this of his mistress Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), while begging the question of does that in turn make Oppenheimer a communist as well and possibly sharing top secret information with the Communist Party. Those are some of the many things explored in this film – yet instead of being all over the place and scattered – Nolan puts it together in a way we never lose track of who’s who. And there is a lot of moving parts here.  Nolan’s film gets easier to watch as it moves along, but you either be familiar with or get used to his pattern of filmmaking as its fast-paced edits of different time periods and conversations must be followed closely to keep on top of the subject matter at hand. There is much information to decipher as well, there is a very large collection of welcome characters to sort through, who worked with or against Oppenheimer.

The quick edits while working beautifully against the soundtrack orchestrations of Ludwig Göransson, happen a mile a minute. Whether you appreciate this method or not, it does enhance the urgency of Dr. Oppenheimer in the eyes of the world, first as the ‘savior’ so to speak, of the united Allies against the last remaining superpower countries that the US is at war with after the Nazi’s have surrendered: Japan. While some have pointed out about how they know the ending to Oppenheimer. a.k.a. they drop the bomb – twice actually – it can be said they do not know the entire story adaptation that Christopher Nolan as director and screenwriter presents, though markedly it isn’t a completely factual turn either. So be sure to read your history books as well.

As with the military and scientific leaders who end up achieve the impossible, like splitting the atom, while also admiring peers and mentors like Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), essentially these men are interested only in what can be accomplished. The superpowers that fight in war though, are interested in how these accomplishments of modern science can be used to their advantage at a cost of collateral damage.  It is these conflicts of interests that Nolan admirably demonstrates over the course of the film. A telling scene is when Robert Oppenheimer meets Harry Truman (Gary Oldman). As the physicist exits the Oval Office, having shared his concerns and scruples with the Commander in Chief, Nolan includes a throwaway line delivered by the President, that you don’t soon forget and it will not be spoiled here. Yet, the dialogue speaks volumes of what the United States held important regarding the servants who did the country’s bidding. The scene closes like a stab in the heart, and suddenly science is no longer just facts within our planet.  Science is now questioned on whether it should ever be acted upon. Those questions certainly have remained even today and the blatantness of overlooking Hiroshima and Nagasaki were also irritating to watch happen. Questioning that is if men and women’s recklessness with science doesn’t destroy the Earth before then is one that should have been more at the forefront instead of just being tossed off to an once scene deal as at one point, Oppenheimer shares a small fraction of possibility for the end of the world when they activate and test their first atomic bomb as we watch as Colonel Groves’ asks for a reiteration of that observation. 

Oppenheimer is a three-hour film, and it demands its running time.  There are so many angles to the man that few really know about.  Many know it was he who instrumentally built the atomic bomb that to date has only been used twice within a period of four days and thankfully never since. The emphasis of how unaware we are of how carefree the doctor’s government supervisors performed with the weapon he agreed to build. The scenes of “Don’t just drop the bomb once – send a message to Japan by dropping it twice” so they know to no longer engage in this ongoing war. Choose the area where an army/government official didn’t honeymoon though because it’s too beautiful a region. Tens of thousands of men, women and child civilians perished immediately following the strikes.  Many others died weeks later following exposure to the nuclear effects that followed.  All issued as a horrifying cost to end a war that was already being won now that Hitler was dead. All this just let us us know how callous war really is.

As for the acting, Oppenheimer marks Cillian Murphy’s sixth turn under Nolan’s direction, but only the first front where he is front and center. And yes, it has been worth the wait as simply put, Murphy has never been better. It’s an all-encompassing performance Murphy captures the mind, the thinker, the philanderer, the dreamer, the doom monger and so many more facets of Oppenheimer the man. There are many scenes to well showcase Murphy’s skill here but few hit home like that in which a moment of triumph is unsettled by existential self-questioning and the horrific realization of guilt. No man is an island, however, and Murphy’s film carrying is well met in an astonishingly starry ensemble. Robert Downey Jr. gifts Nolan his best performance in years telling us that he isn’t Iron Man anymore, he is the actor’s actor of decades past and my goodness, he’s still got it here as businessman Lewis Strauss, with Emily Blunt who does well with what she is given as Oppenheimer’s disparaging, lonely alcoholic wife Kitty. Her grand moment arrives during an interrogation scene close to the end of the film, and it was worth the wait though this is by far not Blunt’s best role, because it is rather limited within crux of the film. In more fleeting appearances, the likes of Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Rami Malek and Gary Oldman do much to prove indefinitely that there is no such thing as a small part. Josh Harnett startles us all putting juice into his role as Ernest Lawrence. Jason Clarke as suit & tie agent Roger Robb per earlier mentioned and his cohort Gordon Gray (Tony Goldwyn), are just a few of the big names and it is a testament to Nolan’s magnetism as a director that such talent can meld into a single film. Again, it can’t be said enough how Murphy is perfectly cast and has Oscar nomination written all over this role. Matt Damon might just be up against himself in the Best Actor/Best Supporting Actor categories now. But it would be remiss of me to let go by some also rather damaging notes of the film. My biggest beef with it and what brought this film down for me was the female characters. They were few and not fleshed out at all in the slightest of who they really were and meant in Oppenheimer’s life and to The Manhattan Project as a whole. Florence Pugh was just basically thrown in here as a sex object, when in real life, she almost derailed the entire thing. Emily Blunt does well with what she’s given – even if it was just scraps. But there were moments of watching where I was just angry at this. I realize this is a movie about Oppenheimer, but Nolan did the female characters dirty here. Not only were they integral, but there were many more of them there and the complete overlooking of this irked me while watching.

Oppenheimer is so dense in the scope of science and the scientist behind it.  That’s a huge compliment.  It’s an engaging film with much to tell, and a lot more to think about afterwards.  It accomplishes what the best movies do.  It leaves you thinking long after the film has ended.  More importantly, it will leave you frightened for the future based on the behavior of this planet’s past. All in all, Oppenheimer was a master class of intrigue. Deft defying in its story, with tension building throughout with phenomenal sound and production. But some of it left me cold and a lot of it left me uneasy. Adding that to the scraps given to the female characters knocks it down some but not out.

Grade: B

Follow me on twitter: @pegsatthemovies or Instagram: Peggyatthemovies

“OPPENHEIMER” FROM WARNER BROS. PICTURES IS OUT IN THEATERS FRIDAY, JULY 21, 2023

Review Screening: Tuesday, July 18, 2023 ~ Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures