TL;DR – A visual spectacle and a masterclass in dissecting a complicated life.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains a scene that may cause distress.

Oppenheimer Review –

Every now and again, my old life and new life collide in interesting ways. All those years of teaching and exploring Arms Control and Disarmament finally became relevant in my current career. The story of the Manhattan Project is fascinating, as was the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose scope I doubt even three hours can completely cover. But given my general love of Christopher Nolan’s work [see Inception and Dunkirk], I knew I could not miss this one.

So to set the scene, the world is at war as Germany marches across Europe and Japan across the Pacific. This is already a dangerous predicament, but the world of theoretical physics has been running leaps and bounds forward, and everyone can see the endpoint, a bomb, a bomb of devastating potential. What happens if the Nazis get a bomb that can destroy cities? As the world scrambles, only one person in America can lead the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). However, his past might contain more problems than the government can handle.

Many people should get biopics made of their lives, but I must admit that J. Robert Oppenheimer is the perfect choice for this kind of inspection. He had a wild personal life, alongside being one of the key people in a scientific discovery that changed the world and whose ripples we are still dealing with today. He is a complex character in his own right, but to add the complications of that nuclear legacy, well, you have the scope to look at something truly fascinating. It could have been too much for a less experienced filmmaker to capture everything you needed, but Christopher Nolan and their team did not miss.

I can’t begin to discuss this film without talking about a cast so stacked that Gary Oldman is in this film and is not even in the top-10 billing. Cillian Murphy has to carry so much of this film, and even with all that weight on his shoulders, you feel the professionalism and need to capture the reality of every moment. The life of J. Robert Oppenheimer is full of complexities, both good and bad, and I feel that Cillian captured all of those nuances in his performance. For a while, I wondered if they were doing anything of major substance with Emily Blunt, who plays Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, only for the film to reveal that they 100% knew why they were casting Emily.   

However, this does not stop with our two leads. Every person in this film gives pitch-perfect performances, even if they are only in for one or two scenes. Robert Downey Jr. plays Lewis Strauss and is probably the second anchor point for the film, which is good because this might be some of the best work, I have seen from him in a while, and you hold on to his every word. Matt Damon plays Leslie Groves who comes in to try and keep this project from flying off the rails and has a mostly calming effect on the film. Florence Pugh probably has the hardest performance in the movie, and I viscerally felt the pain of her character Jean Tatlock. This also includes perhaps the most awkward sex scene I have seen in a film in recent memory. But this is just scratching the surface of the acting in this film. With Josh Hartnett, David Krumholtz, Jack Quaid, Alden Ehrenreich, Jason Clarke, and you know what? Look, the whole ensemble cast is giving masterful performances here.       

In recent films, Christopher Nolan has always liked to play with the notion of time, and I wondered how he would explore that in what is a straightforward narrative compared to films like Interstellar. He achieves this by interlacing the general drive forward towards the Trinity Test with his past and future. It can be difficult to follow a film when it jumps back and forth between its internal timeline, but I was never lost. Part of this was because they chose to film the different sections in slightly different styles, so you always had a visual anchor for where you were meant to be. This led to some interesting choices, like having future events from the film’s perspective be in black-and-white when you usually would reserve that for sections set in the past. But this helps frame the movie from Robert’s perspective and create a visual language to help support the narrative.

Which leads us to the visual presentation and what a visually stunning film this is. It has very stylised depictions of all the nuclear processes, but you get absorbed into this world where flames become part of the visual language of the film. The whole lead-up to the Trinity Test had me on the edge of my seat, with silence and roar being used in equal measures to captivate me. This is supported by what I think might be my favourite musical score that Ludwig Göransson has made. Those brass notes rumble through your chairs, making you feel the film. There were some moments where I wished they tweaked the sound mix or added subtitles, but thankfully this was not nearly as much a problem as it was in the past.

However, as the film progressed, an issue latched on to me, and I could not shake it as I was processing the film. One of the things that I was pleasantly surprised about was just how into the weeds it went with the issues around the political realities of the time, of the different ways to make a nuclear weapon with discussions about gun and implosion-type weapons. Yes, that story about Kyoto actually happened. We even get deep into the weeds of Robert’s life, including when he tries to poison someone with a laced apple. However, when it came to discussing ethics around nuclear weapons, it felt like the film didn’t go far enough to engage with what happened to the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

We get discussions about the political reality of the strikes, scientists’ fears about them, and even Robert’s own internal dilemmas, but it is all reaction and not reality. I know this will be a more personal note here, but having experienced the deeply emotional Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, I could not help but feel there were missed opportunities. We got Robert quoting the Bhagavad Gita  with “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”. I just wish we also got Kenneth Bainbridge’s (Josh Peck) “Now we are all sons of bitches.” I will also say the last 45 minutes were something I loved about the film, but given how long the movie is, I think this shift will be a hard sell for many.

In the end, do we recommend Oppenheimer? Absolutely. While there were some issues with it that I can’t push away. That does not take away from the visual excellence and masterclass performances on show here. They captured a time and a place, but more importantly, they delved into the complexities of a complex person and didn’t shy away from what they found. If you liked Oppenheimer, we would recommend to you Rocketman.           

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Oppenheimer?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Oppenheimer
Directed by – Christopher Nolan
Screenplay by – Christopher Nolan
Based on – American Prometheus by Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin
Music by – Ludwig Göransson
Cinematography by – Hoyte van Hoytema
Edited by – Jennifer Lame
Production/Distribution Companies – Syncopy Inc., Atlas Entertainment & Universal Pictures
Starring – Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Dylan Arnold, Gustaf Skarsgård, David Krumholtz, Matthew Modine, David Dastmalchian, Tom Conti, Michael Angarano, Jack Quaid, Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Dane DeHaan, Danny Deferrari, Alden Ehrenreich, Jefferson Hall, Jason Clarke, James D’Arcy, Tony Goldwyn, Devon Bostick, Alex Wolff, Scott Grimes, Josh Zuckerman, Matthias Schweighöfer, Christopher Denham, David Rysdahl, Guy Burnet, Louise Lombard, Harrison Gilbertson, Emma Dumont, Trond Fausa Aurvåg, Olli Haaskivi, Gary Oldman, John Gowans & Kurt Koehler
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 12; New Zealand: M; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R