Well, that movie bombed. :::rimshot:::
BQB here with a review of Christopher Nolan’s epic historical drama.
The atomic bomb. It was a terrible invention and yet, once science progressed to the point where its invention was inevitable, it became a necessary evil for America to invent it before a more evil power, say, the Nazis, invented it first.
Christopher Nolan, who has often wowed us with his mysterious, edgy, cliffhanger music style brings his usual schtick to this drama. If you came for action, you’ll be disappointed, except for the end where SPOILER ALERT the bomb goes off. I mean, that really shouldn’t have been a spoiler in a movie about the bomb, but there you go. The rest of the movie is a lot of talking – about how to invent the bomb, whether it can be done, whether it should be done, what will happen if the Nazis invent it first and so on. It’s heavy on the dialogue and Nolan makes very liberal use of dramatic music, such that it almost feels like this movie is a historic rock video set to a beat. At various points, you have prominent historic figures debating esoteric points and the heavy music kicks in just in time to remind you to be afraid, very, very afraid.
Cillian Murphy, a frequent star of Nolan flicks, plays the titular scientist – brilliant but flawed, as many geniuses are. So focused on the pursuit of knowledge that he allows his personal life to fall into disarray, chain smoking constantly while cheating on his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) with his longtime paramour Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). To be honest, the film spends a lot of time trying to explain bomb science (we’re all too dumb to figure it out) and even more time on Oppenheimer’s battles with opponents who disapproved of his communist ties (interesting, but eventually the ground was more than covered) – it would have been interesting if the film could have explored what screw in Oppenheimer’s brain went loose that made him become a womanizing sex fiend. Ultimately, the affair makes him, his wife, and his girlfriend sad so why carry it on? Why start it in the first place? What was broken in him that he needed it? If that was explained, I missed it. We do get the general sense that from his early student days, he was very weird and eccentric, that his mind was essentially a glass and when all the milk of physics was poured into it, there was no room left for basic life skills.
Like Nolan’s unintelligible Tenet, time is not linear in Oppenheimer though unlike Tenet, the timeframe is understandable. Jumps are made forward and backward, from committee hearings on the nomination of Oppenheimer’s colleague turned rival Lewis Straus (Robert Downey Jr.) to various points in time in the race to build the bomb.
Oddly, its a three hour movie with a lot of talking but it goes by quick. If you don’t like dialog based flicks, this probably isn’t for you. There’s a lot of meditation on the bomb itself, its significance, how horrible it was yet sadly how once its invention became inevitable, America had to be the first to invent it, how Oppenheimer was torn between the love of the science behind it but the sadness of being responsible of unleashing the nuclear age upon the world.
STATUS: Shelf-worthy
Bookshelf Battle 