Oppenheimer

Official Australian release date: 20/7/23. Viewed: 14/8/23.
Director: Christopher Nolan
Actors: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon
Genre: Drama / Biopic         
Rating: MA

‘Oppenheimer’ sounds like it could be boring – a film about a theoretical physicist in the early 20^th century. This could not be further from reality – I’d have to rate this up there with Nolan’s best work, almost better than ‘Inception’ and ‘The Prestige’. Time will tell. Cillian Murphy is excellent as Robert Oppenheimer, who leads America’s “Manhattan Project” during 1942–1945 in the race to develop the atomic bomb before the Nazis and end World War II.

While some creative licence may have been taken at times, the film does well to capture enough of the history, players and importance of the what, why and how. While no other actor outshines Murphy, there’s great support from wife Kitty (Blunt), his post-WWII boss Strauss (Downey Jr), first girlfriend Jean (Pugh), Einstein (Conti), Lawrence (Hartnett), Teller (Safdie), Rabi (Krumholz) and General Groves (Damon). There’s about 30 other familiar faces who pop up, either in Los Alamos or the hearings afterwards. While mostly linear, the time-swaps and black-and-white footage interspersed in the final act add an element of suspense to the post-WWII years.

Even though the run-time is 3 hours, the first hour flies by at breakneck speed, setting the scene, then the detail and problem-solving of the Manhattan Project almost make you forget what’s at stake – before the final act hammers home the moral and emotional toll the bomb had on Oppenheimer. The score is really great and adds plenty to the context – including the lack of score for the bomb test detonation, which has excellent practical special effects. There’s personal drama for Oppenheimer and his colleagues, and the film does well not to turn into a war (or anti-war) film, but stay focused on the scientific achievements. The court-room-type scenes are superbly done. You feel justified, fulfilled and sombre by the end.

Overall: An exceptional film in all respects

Gav's Rating: 4.5 stars