Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer discourses on a subject énorme; the destruction of our world, for that reason alone, everyone should see this film.
There’s no doubt that director, Christopher Nolan, (Interstellar, Dunkirk – among others,) has been truly committed to bringing Oppenheimer to fruition; however, from a filmic perspective it does hit a few negative particles: An atomic problem, is the character of Oppenheimer, himself. (In reality, a precocious, entitled youth whose exclusive education was bankrolled by his immigrant parents; parents who came ‘so good’ that they were able to leave their son a multi-millionaire. Nor does the story touch on the huge salaries the scientists were paid to work on the atomic Manhattan project. No sacrifice for noble causes here, folks!)
Cillian Murphy plays the lead role in all sincerity, but despite his beautiful eyes, much of that portrayal is weirdly fixed and superficial. This could be a valid interpretation of Oppenheimer, the scientist, but in the confines of the theatre it makes him unlikeable. Perhaps that was the point?
Oppenheimer is the experimental Dr Jekyll, the ego-driven Dr Victor Frankenstein who wants to see his creation live; the privileged academic that wants to see if the math checks out. This obsession could have been depicted much more effectively onscreen. Comparison can’t help be made with Robert Downey’s masterful playing of Lewis Strauss as the evil, driven, obsessive politician. (Actually, one wonders why Downey didn’t get the leading role?)
Which brings me to the rest of the cast, all generally unlikeable – clever, privileged characters with few morals, where cheating on spouses appears de rigeur. There’s Emily Blunt as the blotchy, neglectful, alcoholic wife and mother, and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, the emotionally disturbed mistress – and despite that character’s suicide, equally unengaging. I’m not sure that the superfluous, nude/lovemaking scenes didn’t just make the whole milieu seem even less charming? 
Caricatures abound, aside from the other scientists whose make-up and acting sometimes teeters on the comic. We have Tom Conti’s shambling, Einstein, Kenneth Branagh as physicist, Niels Bohr, and ‘truth-telling’ Rami Malek, aka Freddie Mercury, as David L Hill. (Can it be that actors just can’t fake a physicist’s braininess?) Harry Oldman pops in as Harry S Truman, with Matt Damon as the affable, down-home, all-American General Groves. They kinda pass muster, but is this acting or star-power?
Structurally, flashbacks, the use of black and white photography, and different colour saturations, were clever, and likely necessary to flesh out Nolan’s choppy narrative, but from the viewer’s perspective, the continual shunting back and forth, had a visually-alienating effect. (Just like this paragraph.) Maybe that was the point, too?
The excellent Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography is dynamite, and we can also applaud Nolan’s elemental decision not to fall into the CGI trap. (Pork-pie hats off too, to costume designer, Ellen Mirojnick for his subtle recreations.)
As for Oppenheimer’s post war remorse: it’s a bit like suspecting what the consequences of your actions might be, but doing them anyway. The people that truly suffered the consequences of the science were all of its victims, past, present and future.
The film is not a particularly enjoyable experience, actually more discomforting, but in the closing sequences, we see how Einstein’s mind-blowing E = mc^2  led to Oppenheimer’s (and others) work in the amazing, crazy-making world of quantum physics. “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” According to the Arms Control Association, 2,056 atomic bombs have been tested on our earth since the 1940’s and we have some 12,500 nuclear weapons waiting in the wings. For this reason alone, go listen to the message.

Rating:     

This is the way the world ends not with a bang but a whimper – TS Elliot

Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last  stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money –  Cree Indian prophecy