Oppenheimer

When it was announced that Christopher Nolan would direct a movie based around Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist who was responsible for developing the first-ever nuclear weapons, it felt like a very smart decision for the director. Despite being an acclaimed filmmaker with movies like Inception, The Prestige, Dunkirk and the Dark Knight Trilogy under his belt, his style of filmmaking has usually favoured visual spectacle and engrossing cinematic experience, over the humanity of a character or the relatability of a story and script. However, with the style of a biopic in which information can come first and emotional connection can come secondary, he would fit right at home in this environment and once the film was released, it seemed that a lot of people agreed. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) is facing the risk of having his security clearance revoked due to accusations of being affiliated with and possibly even being a Communist. All of this was spurred from American businessman and philanthropist Lewis Strauss (played by Robert Downey Jr.), who has grown a strong resentment for Oppenheimer and is hoping to tarnish his reputation by unearthing several dirty secrets that hide in his past. He is forced to recount his experience with the Manhattan Project, a research and development undertaking which lasted from 1942 to 1946, that focused on the production of the first nuclear weapons which would be used to end World War II. After becoming director for the project, he starts working with U.S Army General Leslie Groves (played by Matt Damon) to recruit and assemble a collection of scientists within Los Alamos, New Mexico, to create a weapon capable of preventing America from falling behind against its enemies. With his wife, Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer (played by Emily Blunt) and children in tow, Oppenheimer showcases his intellectual brilliance by creating the atomic bomb but is shown the magnitude of what he has unleashed when U.S President Truman (played by Gary Oldman) drops atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to surrender. Now known as the father of a weapon of mass destruction and being caught in a trial that has the potential to destroy his public image, how much damage has he done by opening Pandora’s box of warfare? Oppenheimer did very well for itself critically and financially, being the highest grossing original film Nolan has released. While maybe not the magnum opus that many see the film as being, this film contains all of Nolan’s strongest aspects and is thankfully minimal in regard to his weakest aspects.

Based on the 2005 biography, American Prometheus by Kai Bird, and Martin J. Sherwin, director Sam Mendes had originally hoped to create an adaptation on the book, but it never came to be. Things changed when producer Charles Roven, along with actor James Woods (who serves as executive producer for the film) met with the owner of the film rights for the book, J. David Wargo, to discuss potential script ideas, which Nolan would eventually deliver on after getting Universal to distribute and finance the film. This film contains a lot of components that Nolan often features in his movies; a focus on metaphysical concepts, a non-linear form of storytelling, an exploration of time and the ethics of humanity, and a focus on practical and experimental filming techniques that enhance the cinematic experience in an otherwise realistic environment. The movie actually manages to squeeze in a lot of information and detail into this singular picture, utilizing its extensive three-hour running time to its absolute best by not wasting any second. This can result in certain things being hard to comprehend or even understand as the full-force pacing leaves little time for the audience to catch up, but through a very strong script also written by Nolan, it conveys a lot of the historical importance of the character and event, as well as the mental struggles that each person was going through at the time, resulting in a screenplay that is packed to the brim with characters, life events and dilemmas, but is also concise, slightly educational and lyrically flowing to the point of being wonderful to listen to. The way the characters talk between each other isn’t the most realistic but has a poetic rhythm to it that along with the solid direction and fast pacing, keeps the engagement level high throughout a majority of its length. This isn’t true for the entire picture however, as the first and third acts of the film are a little messy in terms of delivery. While the multiple different perspectives the film is presented in isn’t as complicated as you would expect, the first act does feel like an extended prologue with an even quicker pace that spouts out a large amount of content that mostly acts as establishing info rather than crucial points for later in the picture, and the final act gets a little lost and confused about its subject of focus. The middle of the film spent during the Manhattan Project is where the film is at its strongest and most engaging, with the other two acts being solid in their own right, but not as clear to keep up with.

This film has a star-studded cast that portrays a majority of these real-life people (large or small) in a way that makes one of Nolan’s worst traits slightly less intrusive. An element has usually plagued Nolan is how he chooses to write his characters. While they usually do serve the film’s they’re in and are led by good actors to support them, they are one of the weakest aspects of his films because they aren’t written to be relatable or emotionally engaging. In a biopic with thriller components however, the dry, cynical, and even amoral nature of the characters makes relatability almost out of the question and allows them to solely focus on being memorable from a writing and historical stance rather than from a human perspective. There is a shallowness to some of them undoubtedly and it’s hard to truly remember many names or unique traits between any of them, but they do work within this movie and the acting really sells a lot of it. Cillian Murphy is very good as Oppenheimer, portraying this truly complicated person with the expected level of intelligence, command, and even creepy level of resolve, but also contains flourishes of the person that many might not be aware of like his natural charisma, lively vocabulary, and generally approachable demeanour. You still might not connect with him on an emotional level, but the movie makes you understand him from a mental and even psychological perspective and paints him as someone who is flawed and certainly questionable in morals, but not heartless. With that said, no other role in this film is as well-handled as the lead, as a majority of the others are either just one-off scenes or under-written characters that could’ve used more. Despite what would be expected, the large and noticeable cast does assist the film more than take away from it as they do help bring identifiable faces to people that could become interchangeable due to how many are present in this film, but not everybody is given the same level of treatment. While some like Matt Damon, Benny Safdie, Jason Clarke, and Josh Hartnett are able to form decently defined characters, and others like Dane DeHaan, David Krumholtz, Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman, and Kenneth Branagh are able to do well with very little, more noticeable roles like Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, and Robert Downey Jr. are acted pretty well, but are also saddled with mostly shallow roles that don’t have much to stand on. Since they’re given more screen time and are seemingly more important to the overall film, it’s more noticeable when they don’t feel like properly fleshed out individuals, and more just like actors playing parts. This isn’t even every recognizable name involved, with people like Jack Quaid, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Matthew Modine, David Dastmalchian, Tony Goldwyn, Alex Wolff, Alden Ehrenreich, Rami Malek, Tom Conti, and James D’Arcy just providing fly-by cameos, but thankfully the acting across the board is pretty good so no one sticks out as poor.

Like you’d expect from a Nolan film, the production value is very impressive and clearly has a lot of effort put into it in regard to how it feels, sounds, and looks from a cinematic perspective. For a story about the creation of the atomic bomb, you don’t really imagine too many visuals that can come out of that (at least, not without going either full creative and abstract or actively showing the scenes of destruction, which they probably wouldn’t want to do), but there are occasional strong shots handled by Hoyte van Hoytema that, while not doing anything revolutionary, still captures the scale of what this story is about whether from a large or even smaller perspective (the close-up shots are arguably the best in the whole film). Ironically, it’s not mirrored too much in the effects, as while it’s appreciated that Nolan wanted to use a practical explosion when making the movie, it doesn’t result in the most awe-inspiring visual, so at least a touch-up with visual effects could’ve been nice to really sell that image (the scene where the bomb goes off for the first time has great build up and the silent nature of the moment is fantastic, but it’s not that interesting from a visual sense). The score by Ludwig Göransson is one that feels a little intrusive at times and is featured in a lot of scenes, but it is a very well composed score, the pace and flow of the story does make the music feel as active as the rest of the picture, and when it needs to be tense and thrilling, it excels at that. The film could’ve been edited a little better in parts, with certain scenes not flowing too well next to each other due to an inconsistency between shots, but that’s really only a problem during the first act as the rest is much more seamless and there are several scenes that are edited so well that it shows off editor Jennifer Lame in a much better light. The sound design for this film is also fantastic, with Randy Torres providing a great bombing weight to each instance that an explosion is either highlighted or mentioned which really sticks with you and uses the cinematic experience to its fullest.

Oppenheimer may not be the best film made by Nolan, as there are others in his filmography that are more engaging on a mainstream level, but this is easily one of his purest. What that means is that everything that makes Nolan the kind of filmmaker that he is, makes its way into this film, through the directing and writing style, the choice of actors and the manner of performance, and the visual and technical aspects. Even parts of his films that don’t normally work are handled in such a manner that match the real-life history and genre styling to the point that they don’t feel distracting, its honestly a type of movie that he should continue to work within because it feels like it really suits him. Now with that said, there are a few issues to point out like the messy handling of the first and third act as well as certain characters not really working, but the directing, acting and visuals of this film are very impressive and more than make it worth checking out. May not go off with a boom but will certainly leave you a little shaken to your core, watch a point of history where the very nature of warfare (as well as global safety) was changed forever.