Movie Review: ‘Oppenheimer’
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malik, Kenneth Branagh, David Dastmalchian
Plot: J. Robert Oppenheimer goes from a gifted physics student to a prominent theoretical physicist who headed up the Manhattan project, leading to the creation of the atomic bomb.
Review: Christopher Nolan has gained a reputation as one of the best film-makers working in modern film. Since establishing himself as a major player with his Dark Knight trilogy, he’s maintained a steady record of high-budget, high-return genre films utilising impressive practical effects, ensemble casts, narrative manipulation and philosophical questions. Oppenheimer may be his most measured work to date, crafting a well paced exploration of the life of a man who created the worlds most destructive weapon.
At the risk of sounding like a lazy reviewer, there’s a view things that we can take for granted here in the best way. It’s very shot and pays particular attention to the sound design. The use of geiger counter readings and a leit-motif of stamping feet form a constant unsettling tone as we build up to the first detonation. There’s some time manipulation at work as we flip through layers of congressional hearings, board hearings and the events as they happened. Cillian Murphy puts in a brilliant performance playing Oppenheimer at different stages of his life and his shift from ambition and immense guilt. It’s a powerful physical and emotional performance that avoids outlandish Oscar-bait melodrama, using the eyes to convey much of his story.
When a director has a strong reputation for narrative experimentation, it feels unusual that Nolan is mostly delving into his back catalogue for ideas. No backwards running armies or dream logic at play, instead using colour and black and white scenes to seperate out scenes of subjectivity and objectivity. This comes in the form of Oppenheimer’s personal experience amid scenes of his career being picked apart by those trying to destroy his reputation. Between the three different timelines, there’s a large number of characters to keep track of, which didn’t prove easy for a jet-lagged audience member who was struggling to be awake (not the movies fault, not even a little). There may be a degree of assumed knowledge here, as some figures from American history that could be more recognisable to US audiences.
On the subject of historical figures, there’s a couple of appearances that felt a touch on the caricature side of things. Albert Einstein may have been as perfect portrayal of the man, but he still has a sense of pantomime about him. The same applies to Gary Oldman’s very brief turn as President Truman, delivered under a heavy layer of make-up effects. Given the layer of realism throughout the film, this can take you out of the experience at times.
The best sequence of the film comes, as expected, with the culmination of their research and experiments and the detonation of the first bomb. It becomes one of the tensest moments in modern cinema despite the known conclusion. The feeling of heat, impact and power is extraordinarily well realised.
Oppenheimer feels more like the work of a craftsman than most other films put out by a major studio. It’s remarkable that a film-maker can exercise such tight, detail-orientated control over a project this size.
Rating: NINE out of TEN
