Oppenheimer – Review

After bemusing with the mind-bending mechanics of 2020’s Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s new wartime biopic lives in a far more realistic setting. One that’s relevancy is still as palpable and poignant as it was back in the 1940’s. Nolan’s Oppenheimer is based on the creation of the Atomic Bomb, but more specifically its father J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by a career best Cillian Murphy), as it plays out like a rousing recreation of the birthplace and eventual devastating destruction of nuclear warfare.

Nolan’s disregard for the heavy usage of CGI has always questioned ones limitations as a filmmaker. But yes, apparently you can still show a nuclear explosion without finding a reason to change course, which is perhaps why Oppenheimer feels like his crowning achievement. It’s certainly not as showy as Inception (2010) or Tenet, and one may beg for Bale’s Batman to show up to lighten the mood, but this part biopic, part courtroom drama, full history lesson isn’t short in scope. As a matter of fact, this may just be the most important piece he’s ever created.

Nolan hires an astonishing cast of A-listers and Academy award winners/nominees to bring this narratively heavy and dialogue driven drama to a show-stopping spectacle. Murphy as the lead is meticulous in his approach to J. Robert Oppenheimer, perfecting his inner turmoil and conflicted nature. His intellectual influence drives those he meets, and his appointment as Director of the Los Alamos Laboratory for the Manhattan Project during World War II, led to his grandest achievement. His task was to create a bomb so devastating it would change the course of war forever. Spoiler alert, it did.

With Emily Blunt as his wife Katherine ‘Kitty’ Oppenheimer, Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss and Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves receiving best billing in support roles, it would be insane enough to end the cast list just here for most movies, and whilst these are all the most likely to receive award buzz come Oscar season, it wouldn’t be right to not give the nod to the impressive cast list that Nolan appointed.

Adding the likes of Florence Pugh, Jason Clark, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Gary Oldman, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Conti – who eerily encapsulates the visual presence of one Albert Einstein – to your call sheet is a testament to the nature in which you operate, and Nolan knows how to get the best out of those who work for him, with not a single performer feeling misplaced or misused even in the little amount of screentime some would be given.

The switch between colour to black and white to demonstrate the change in perspective is a neat little design that helps split its structure and allows you to track its nonlinear narrative more closely. It can still feel a little rough at times, and not every story beat comes to a conclusion of note, but aided by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, at least every scene looks picture perfect.

There’s one real jaw dropping sequence which falls around the middle mark of the movie. A brave but pivotal scene that alerts its audience through its shattering silence. I guess that may be one heavy criticism for a movie directed by a guy that offers plenty of thrills on a continuous basis in whatever he directs, but its a sequence which may now set a new bar for his career.

Though despite its occasional lulls, Oppenheimer optimises its three hour runtime by letting its cast do its thing. Mostly captivating through its character writing and historical importance. The fact that a film which relies so heavily on these points is still making a huge splash in the box office, gives me hope that cinema isn’t dead after all.