Film Review: Oppenheimer

An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning book American Prometheus, Oppenheimer chronicles the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who was the head of the Manhattan Project and is considered the father of Quantum Physics in America. Christopher Nolan’s film tries its best to live up to the lofty life of its central character and while the film has some really intriguing ideas and great performances, the dueling plots and editing make it feel like more of a chore than a entertaining experience.

A small primer: We meet Oppenheimer when he is a student at Cambridge, struggling against working in the laboratory setting. Inspired by one of his scientific heroes, he studies in Germany where his eyes are opened to the realms of theoretical physics. This avenue eventually takes him to UC Berkeley, where his professorship and research sets the stage for him chosen to lead the Manhattan Project. Along the way he makes time to have a tangled love life, piss off his colleagues, and runs afoul of the US government. And this is but the start of his journey as a man and the subject of this film.

The movie, much like its titular character, is at war with itself. Christopher Nolan’s script is a mixture of high morality plays and heady scientific discussion. Scenery chewing and simple scenes. Oppenheimer is at its best as it’s on the track towards building the bomb and the immediate reckoning Oppenheimer must do in its aftermath. There’s seemingly a moment for every actor in the movie (Josh Hartnett and Matt Damon are early movie MVPs) and Nolan has such a grip on timing and getting the most out of everyone. It is in those moments that the movie more than lives up to its big screen stature. Nolan does a really solid job of showing these characters and their faults, without passing judgement or needing the characters themselves to. Watching the actors eat up this material and the below the line talent make it real is quite a sight to behold.

Color me surprised then that when I felt the film had reached a natural conclusion, we ended up with a whole other hefty chunk of a movie to witness. The secondary plot which follows Lewis Strauss and Oppenheimer’s dealings with the US government post-bomb, slows the movie down to a crawl. The battle between the political sphere and the science realm is a really fascinating clash to wrestle with but unfortunately, this section of the movie just does not hold up in terms of the filmmaking. Much of it feels unmoored (the decision to do this in black and white is a very glaring miss outside of some incredible shots) and while Robert Downey Jr. is giving it his all, his story does not feel connected enough to the emotional core of the movie to do much more than feel like a distraction from what the film does best.

Outside of the acting, Oppenheimer’s visuals are the star of the show and this film is the closest you’ll get to a 3D 2D movie. By nature of using the IMAX cameras and my having to sit closer than I would have liked, I certainly felt immersed in the production. Cillian Murphy’s face felt like it was right next to mine. Nolan has crafted a movie that feels both incredibly small and intimate for the most part, with the exception of some visual flourishes that he wisely drops once the movie really needs to get going.

But the element of the film that is worth the price of admission is the leading performance of Cillian Murphy. One of the reasons you get a guy like Cillian to play this part is that you know he’ll dig into the nooks and crannies of the character he plays and then display them in a way that’s 100% truthful. He gives great movie face but above all is able to tap into the complexity of a man such as Oppenheimer. While the movie might threaten to spin out of control, his performance keeps us on track.