Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan is probably the single best director working in film and television today. He has reached that rarified space wherein his name alone warrants an immediate green light from studios and guarantees box-office draw. His films are generally always pushing the envelope of what a big budget studio blockbuster can be and he is one of only a few working directors today for whom you drop everything and insist on seeing his latest release at the cinema.

Such was the case with 'Oppenheimer'. Even without knowing its plot, you instantly felt the need to go and see this film in massive IMAX glory. This was the case for myself and the venue I went to had the sound dialed to the point that it shook the chairs we were sitting in. Fitting for a film about nuclear bombs. 

Cillian Murphy plays real-life quantum physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, considered the father of the atomic bomb, and this film delves pretty deep into his personal life, his brilliance, and the haunting effects of using your mind to create something so devastating to mankind. It opens with a bang (this will be the first of many puns, so get used it), throwing us straight into the middle of a classic Christopher Nolan timelines-all-over-the-place narrative. To say it's jumpy is an understatement. It took me a good half an hour to even know what was going on when. It is an absolutely break-neck pace and completely rips up the rulebook for how to present a biopic. The Oscar-winning editing (Jennifer Lame) is pretty much masterful from the opening frame and while it leaves no room for a casual viewer, eventually you settle into the rhythm of things and the story itself starts to reveal itself.

To break it down somewhat, here are the narratives at play: there is the young rebellious Oppenheimer, learning to master the art of quantum mechanics (as you do), then there is the slightly older Oppenheimer, becoming a revered star of his field, philandering left and right, and dabbling in communism. Then there is the bomb-building Oppenheimer, working with the government to outpace the Nazis in the race to nuclear arms. Then there is the haunted post-bomb Oppenheimer, haunted by his actions and maligned by society. Then there is the on-trial Oppenheimer, being accused of colluding with Russia in order for them to create an atom bomb of their own. These narratives are all going simultaneously and the film should almost come with a guidebook, such is it's complexity. But there you go. Hopefully that helps. 

Narratively, things really pick up when Matt Damon's Gen. Leslie Groves comes into the story and the race to beat the Germans starts to heat up. Still things rocket along (pun #2) at a full sprint but by now you are fully strapped in and enjoying the ride. All of which might suggest endless action and cars screeching round corners etc. That is not the case at all. This is a film occupied predominantly by men talking in rooms and  if it wasn't put together in the way that it was, I fear it might be dreadfully dull. As it is, however, it's completely compelling.

As with all of Nolan's films, the directing is absolutely flawless. Where there are contrivances are, again as is quite typical with his films, in the writing. The dialogue has that certain Nolan style which can make it very hard for us to really care about the characters. Similar to Woody Allen's work, certain actors can perform this style convincingly (Matt Damon, for example, who I'm starting to think might be one of the greatest actors of all-time), others have a tougher time with it (Matthew Modine, we're looking at you). When this happens, things can feel a bit stilted and after-school special. There's also some odd choices, like Florence Pugh hopping off of Murphy, post-climax, and heading straight to his bookshelf to dissect his reading choices. I get it, but you find yourself thinking "you literally just had sex 12 seconds ago, is this really the time to be across the room from each other discussing Karl Jung?" For my money, this is the case with all of Nolan's films since 'Memento' - people can quite easily slip into the realm of feeling non-human and it's a difficult hurdle to overcome, from an audience standpoint. 

There is also the standard Nolan trope of people finishing each other's sentences which once noticed cannot be unnoticed. Example: 

Oppenheimer: "You've only got a shelf full of Freud?"

Tatlock: "Actually my background is more..."

Oppenheimer: "Jungian?" 

Tatlock: "You know analysis."

Bit cringe, if we're honest. 

However, this is where Nolan usually batters you with haymakers. The limitations of the writing always, and I do mean always, gets suppressed by the sheer brilliance of the filmmaking. That proves once again to be the case here. The A-Bomb test sequence is up there with the great moments in cinema history. The way he manages to build tension and tackle the grander questions at play at the same time is a wonder to watch. I mean, when the opening shot is recalling Prometheus, the god who gave man fire, you know it's going to be a heady cocktail of ideas. But that 20 minutes or so is about as good as it gets, in terms of large-scale spectacle. The use of silence and noise are nothing short of masterful. 

There is a very obvious break in the story, to the point where you almost expect the word "Intermission" to pop up on the screen. We could call this break pre-bomb/post-bomb and the last hour of the story focuses almost solely on the latter. It is more men talking in rooms about life, ramifications, consequences and actions. Here is where Murphy's performance really begins to come to the fore. His big, sunken eyes seem to contain the weight of the universe itself, constantly drawing you in to the point where you feel kind of terrible for the man his talent forced him to become. There is also kind of a betrayal plot churning along during this part of the story which, for me, doesn't really land. It is true and therefore probably needed to be in there, but it felt underwhelming in the context of everything else up to that point. 

Of course, the cast is superb. You know you've got pull when you can hire an Academy-Award Winner to deliver about eight lines of dialogue (Rami Malek), and there really aren't any speaking roles who don't have an acting heavyweight behind them. Speaking of which, it's nice to see Josh Hartnett working again. An underrated talent of a man. Downey Jnr won an Oscar for his role and I'm not sure I agree with the choice. Although he tones down his Downey Jnr-ness for the first time, possibly ever, his performance is the one less than stellar contribution to the film for me. His scenes (behind the scenes) with Alden Ehrenreich are probably the weakest element of the plot and the one thing we probably could've done without. The rest of the film, however, is top tier and proves once again that you don't need to make something big, dumb, and silly for it to land with audiences on a large scale. This entire film is largely a meditation on the very nature of humankind, and still comes out absolutely thrilling on the big screen. That in itself is a monumental achievement.  

As mentioned earlier, if the film only consisted of the bomb-testing sequence alone, it would be worth watching. Instead it is a relentless and thoroughly well-executed character study that, although giant in scale, really soars when focusing on the human side of things. It ranks as yet another fine addition to Nolan's ever-impressive catalogue and I'm almost certain my regard for this film will strengthen the more times I see it. Nolan's legacy continues to mushroom cloud its way to immortality (pun) and it's truly a pleasure to see someone continually forging into new territories of what can be achieved via the magic of cinema. After all, theory can only get you so far. 

★★★★☆

JB.