As clock counted down and the zero hour approached to the release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, it became apparent that its power didn’t just lurk within the blast radius of the nuclear fire that the titular physicist unleashed upon the world, but it also lay within a pretty strenuous advertising campaign to build up hype for the type of movie that isn’t usually seen during cinema’s silly summer season.
Who else but Nolan could have a biopic released in a market full of Ninja Turtles, ravenous megaladons and the latest death defying feat from Tom Cruise and not only have it go toe to toe with the hot pink shenanigans of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, but actually co-spawn the endlessly meme-able phenomenon that became known as Barbienhiemer.
However, now that the dust has settled and Oppenheimer has been finally released, has Nolan’s efforts been worth it?
As the Second World War progresses, brilliant but complex physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer is approached by General Leslie Groves to head up something called the Manhattan Project, a no expence spared attempt to beat the Nazis in the race to create the first atomic bomb. As everything ramps up, a town is built in Los Alamos, New Mexico and many of Oppenheimer’s talented colleagues are recruited to explore the numerous ways to drop promethian fire on an opposing enemy and the mental slog begins to unlock the secrets of atomic energy.
However, as we soon discover, there is far more going on here than just a bunch of boffins agonising over theory while scribbling furiously on chalk boards as the sprawling time line bounces between Oppenheimer’s awkward youth and the relationships he forges along the way that have connections to the American Comunist Party.
This, unsurprisingly, rears up to bite him on the Oppenheinie years later as other time skips deal with the ramifications of some of the later political pleas of the “father of the atomic bomb” that ruffle some feathers as sees him weathering a hearing designed to strip him of his credibility. This is twinned with the machiavellian actions of the bitter Lewis Strauss who’s dislike and jealousy of the man he marked as his professional and personal enemy, plays out over the years.
As this sprawling look at the man’s life and the effects his invention had on both the world and his own views continues, forces behind the scenes shift and move as friends and foes choose sides, but there’s no escape the terrible truth – whatever kind of man Oppenheimer was, his legacy will always be that he gave mankind to ability to destroy themselves. That’s quite a pill to swallow, no?
As per usual for a Nolan gig, Oppenheimer is gargantuan undertaking for all concerned as virtually everything about it ridiculously epic. Huge cast, huge cameras (naturally, the director shot the thing in IMAX), hefy running time and a desire dramatize sobering events that flipped world history on its axis all merge to offer an impressive sense of scale. Nolan’s script is ambitious and eager to cover the lead up and (literal) fallout of the effects of creating something that changed the world overnight so not only does his screenplay try to get a grasp on the man himself, but tries to select the key moments that defined him both before and after his fateful test lit up the night as bright as day.
It’s a hefty task that the cast is more than eager to lock horns with and leading the charge, while featuring cheekbones you could sharpen a knife on, is long time Nolan supporting actor, first time Nolan lead: Cillian Murphy who rises to the challenge beautifully. Whether fixing those piercing eyes into a thousand yard stare while his mind plays with images of physics at play or weighing up the true cost of the science he has unlocked, Murphy carries the unbearable tonnage of his actions on his emaciated frame as he glares out from under his fedora. It’s a welcome lead feature role for the actor who made such a splash way back when in 28 Days Later and who really came into his own throughout six series of Peaky Blinders and hopefully this will lead to a further progression into yet more starring roles.
Elsewhere, the rest of the large cast swing in and out of his orbit as the story zig zags back and forth on the timeline. Matt Damon is solid as the straight laced General overseeing the Manhattan Project while Robert Downey Jr. puts fifteen years of playing Tony Stark behind him by playing the vindictive and jealous Strauss with hints of F. Murray Abraham’s character from Miloš Forman’s Amadeus. Elsewhere, Emily Blunt’s Kitty Oppenheimer and Florence Pugh’s communist flame are put to use with a more deliberate nature with Blunt in particular held back before being fully let loose during a later scene where she give’s Jason Clarke’s bullish interrogator a taste of his own medicine.
The rest of the cast list is, frankly, insane and feels reminiscent of the all-star pantheon of Oliver Stone’s JFK that sees the likes of Jack Quaid, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti (as Albert Einstein), Rami Malik, Josh Hartnett, David Dastmalchian, Dane Dehaan, Matthew Modine and Alden Ehrenreich all jostling for space as the movie gives each one at least one big moment in the spotlight. It’s probably Nolan’s most purely actor focused picture since The Prestige and it’s truly impressive that their simply isn’t a squeaky wheel among them.
Of course, with such a crowded story, some moments stand out more than others with the more memorable scenes usually occurring when the film isn’t dealing directly with the central creation of the atom bomb. Behold Casey Affleck’s cameo as a frankly terrifying military intelligence officer that ramps up the paranoia with his dead eyes and the smile of a great white shark; or Gary Oldman’s turn as President Truman looking genuinely disgusted at Oppenheimer’s pleas for control over the creation of any further WMSs; or Oppenheimer himself, having to muscle through a victory speech to his subordinates while his imagination envisions the carnage he’s wrought on the people of Japan happening all around him.
There is a flaw in Oppenheimer’s design, it’s that Nolan tries to make three films in one, each based on a section of his life that intersect and interlink to create a final result that often proves to be far more complicated than the dense calculations that decorate the various labs around Los Alamos and sometimes you find that the tension of the piece is defused while you strain to remember where the scene you’re watching sits in the big picture. However, Nolan knocks it out the park when he gets to stretch his legs and realise the central bomb test in a way that’s utterly nerve wracking while (thankfully) stopping short of detonating and actual device.
Sometimes too densely packed for it’s own good, Oppenheimer still nevertheless seems to mark a new direction for Christopher Nolan as seems to be leaving the sci-fi thrills of Inception and Tenet behind in order to focus on down to earth projects as he continues to forge his path into ever more dramatic arenas.
While Oppenheimer may seem a strange, sobering subject for a summer blockbuster, but Nolan’s explosive biopic is just the latest wave of the director’s desire to inject intelligence into the event movie.
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