Review 692: Oppenheimer

  

Oppenheimer is amazingly, astonishing biographical drama film, a fascinating character study and a showcase for Christopher Nolan's brilliant filmmaking.

Based on the biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin, the film chronicles the life of J. Robot Oppenheimer, an American theoretical physicist who is recruited to lead the Manhattan Project to develop the first nuclear weapons and thereby ushering in the Atomic Age.

Told in Nolan's signature non-linear style, the 1950's segments which showcase the hearings and investigations of Oppenheimer in regards to his alleged communist sympathies are beautifully shot in black-and-white.     In the lead up to the Trinity Test, they were dealing with the very small possibility that when they pushed the button, they would set fire to the atmosphere of the Earth and destroy the whole planet and yet they pushed that button.

Despite its runtime of three hours, Oppenheimer has a great sense of pacing   the effects are all marvellous, an amazing showcase for Nolan's emphasis on practical effects and minimal CGI to create a visual mastery that surpasses the VFX work of modern blockbusters, the score by Ludwig Goransson is spectacular, the locations are fabulous and lend the film a strong sense of period detail and verisimilitude. The production design is terrific and  the costumes are lavish

Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Remi Malek, Emma Dumont, Benny Safdie, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Tom Conti, Matthew Modine, Dylan Arnold, Olli Haaskivi, Alden Ehrenreich, David Krumholtz, Michael Angarano, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, David Dastmalchian, Jason Clarke, Louise Lombard, Scott Grimes, Christopher Denham, James D'Arcy, Devon Bostick, Matthias Schweighofer, Gustaf Skarsgard, Josh Peck, Alex Wolff, Tony Goldwyn, Macon Bair, James Remar, Tim DeKay & Olivia Thirbly, It's a stacked cast and rather awesome. Some of these roles are smaller than others, but a large majority of them get a chance to shine.

Cilllian Murphy is a charismatic actor with an hugely commanding screen presence which he brings to the role of J. Robot Oppenheimer. Playing him as a  He opposed the development of the H-bomb on the grounds that it would just promote the arms race. 

Emily Blunt is her usual fabulous self playing Katherine Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer's wife. She refused to conform to the feminine ideals of the time 

Matt Damon  playing Leslie Groves, a USACE officer who recruits Oppenheimer to lead the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer and Groves are like Chalk and Cheese because on hand, the former is this young, naive physicist who doesn’t think the consequences of his actions and then we have Groves who is this brash, no-nonsense Army officer. These two contrasting personalities are what make them such an inspired double act.    

Robert Downey, Jr. is fantastic playing Lewis Strauss. Strauss offered Oppenheimer a job a the director of The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and then he showed the Advisory of the Atomic Energy Committee and Oppenheimer lobbied for control of nuclear power having been basically the Father of the Bomb, he immediately began lobbying for control of it. and really just a terrific foil for Murphy's Oppenheimer It's not hard to see why he was considered a villain in American history.

Despite being only a bit part, Florence Pugh gets a chance to shine playing psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, she was blunt, knew what she wanted but was also troubled 

5/5.