Oppenheimer (2023)

[6]

Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later) stars as the physicist credited with inventing the atomic bomb in this sprawling, rapid-paced, three-hour Best Picture Academy Award winner from director Christopher Nolan (Interstellar, Inception). The first hour of Oppenheimer focuses on the man’s life before the bomb, establishing him as a brilliant but difficult personality and a bit of a womanizer whose Left-leaning politics threaten to make him an enemy of the U.S. government. That very government asks him to help them beat the Germans and Russians in the burgeoning arms race, bringing us into the film’s second hour in which Oppenheimer recruits scientists from around the world to New Mexico. There they build and test the world’s first atomic bomb, which immediately ends World War II. The third hour then centers around Oppenheimer’s battle with the U.S. government to maintain security clearance, a fight that boils down to a personal vendetta held by a former colleague with political aspirations played by Robert Downey Jr.

Oppenheimer is a huge movie with enough story for three separate films. By necessity, about two-thirds of the movie plays in quickly-edited ‘trailer’ fashion, creating a pastiche of things that happened instead of fully immersing us in those moments. I found this technique abrasive — almost alienating — in the first hour, but I got used to it as the film went on. The result is that a three-hour movie literally never gets boring — it moves too quickly for you to ever get comfortable, much less bored. The downside is that there are only a small handful of scenes that carry any emotional resonance or weight.

The actor who benefits from this fast-cut storytelling is Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, who essentially narrates the first half of the movie while he’s being interrogated by the government about Oppenheimer. His voice is the connective tissue, allowing him to play puppet master to our viewing experience — and indeed, even Oppenheimer’s life. I wonder if Nolan was intentionally mirroring the film Amadeus, because Downey is very much the Salieri to Oppenheimer’s Mozart. Downey is terrific in this movie. His celebrity persona disappears into character choices and mannerisms that fully erase any specter of Iron Man.

In comparison, Cillian Murphy’s performance feels constantly interrupted. This may be by Nolan’s design if he opted to paint a portrait of a man by throwing bits and pieces of his life at us, jumbled out of order, much the same way a bomb might fling shrapnel at us. Either way, I didn’t care about Oppenheimer as a person. In fact, I strongly disliked him. The most I ever connected with him was when he feared the bomb might create a chain reaction that destroys the world. It’s the film’s strongest thematic note, the note it ends on — but it’s a note played better by two other actors in interactions with Oppenheimer: David Krumholtz as Isidor Rabi, and Tom Conti as Albert Einstein. Cillian Murphy is good in this movie — he’s good in every movie he’s in. But if this is a biopic, its central character is the least engaging part of it.

Oppenheimer continues Christopher Nolan’s penchant for playing with form and function. There are a few scenes in which Oppenheimer’s state of mind becomes fragile, manifest in the sets around him beginning to shake and rattle, the other characters in the scenes being literally illuminated by explosions only in his mind. There’s another terrific scene in which Florence Pugh, as Oppenheimer’s extra-marital lover, rides him nude during an interrogation with the government. She’s not really there, but she’s very much on Oppenheimer’s mind while his wife (Emily Blunt) sits behind him during questions about the affair. These scenes bring some nice poetry to the movie. But, dear Christopher Nolan, for the love of Christ, stop playing around with aspect ratios. (It makes home viewing a nightmare.)

One of the things that keeps Oppenheimer more than watchable at three hours long is its enormous and constantly surprising supporting cast. Those who get one or two opportunities to shine include the aforementioned David Krumholtz and Tom Conti, who deliver some of my favorite, more emotional moments in the film. Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt also have their moments. Blunt plays icy counterpoint to Pugh’s more passionate, darkly comedic performance. Blunt gets one of the film’s dramatic highlights when she squares off with a smug government inquisitor. Matt Damon gives a gruff, solid performance as the military’s liaison to Oppenheimer, someone who seems to respect Oppenheimer even if he keeps him at arm’s length. Gary Oldman has a fun cameo as President Truman, and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) plays a critical role during the third act climax. I also loved seeing Alden Ehrenreich as Robert Downey Jr’s right-hand man whose allegiance turns as Downey’s treachery is revealed. (Ehrenreich got a bum rap after appearing in the maligned Solo; watch Hail, Caesar! to see how good he can be.) Other players include Kenneth Branagh, Matthew Modine, Tony Goldwyn, Jack Quaid (The Boys), Michael Angarano (Sky High), Casey Affleck, and James Remar.

Overall, I admire the ambition of the movie Oppenheimer, most especially Robert Downey Jr and some of the fragmented supporting performances. But the film is too cold, too cerebral for me to fully embrace. This appears intrinsic with Nolan’s work. He’s a brilliant filmmaker where plot, aesthetics, and form/function come into play. But except for Interstellar, he’s not adept with human emotion. Or maybe he’s just overly fearful of sentimentality. It probably serves him well in films like Insomnia, Inception or The Dark Knight. But in the story of a man who knowingly sewed the seeds of humanity’s eventual destruction, I needed more.

Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Murphy), Supporting Actor (Downey Jr.), Score, Film Editing, Cinematography

Oscar Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Blunt), Sound, Makeup & Hairstyling, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Costume Design