OPPENHEIMER and the Power of Nolan

Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception) is a director who draws audiences and the finest acting talent.  Oppenheimer, his most mature film, is the culmination of his career much as Schindler’s List was Steven Spielberg’s pinnacle.  Based on the Pulitzer winning biography, American Prometheus, it’s a deeply engrossing account of the man who helped create the atomic bomb.

On the brink of World War II, theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is recruited by the U.S. military led by General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to oversee building an atomic bomb before the Germans do. Set in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the Manhattan Project amasses a who’s who of the brightest scientific minds under a strict veil of secrecy.  However, Oppenheimer’s past relationships including a lover (Florence Pugh) and his ties to the Communist Party will haunt him and his wife (Emily Blunt). As the bomb’s test approaches, he struggles with its implications and how it will change the world forever.

Told from the subjective, first person in alternating color then black and white sequences and flashing back and forth in time (a Nolan trademark), the story also explores Oppenheimer’s moral concerns about an arms race with the Russians and internal power struggles amid the specter of McCarthyism.  This enormous production, beautifully shot in IMAX, features a pulsating score and brilliant use of light and sound that not only helps recreate an atomic explosion without CGI, but projects Oppenheimer’s nightmarish visions.  The film’s complex screenplay (not for everyone) moves at a rapid pace trying to fit as much of its intense narrative into three hours.  

For a film loaded with future Oscar contenders, Murphy is outstanding with strong support from Robert Downey Jr. (as adversarial Lewis Strauss) while Blunt and Damon shine.  Pugh is effective in her limited screen time, and when was the last time a film featured three lead Oscar winners (Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman) in supporting roles? 

Here was an historic, tragic figure whose greatest accomplishments were challenged by his conscience and concerns which reverberate to this day. Nolan’s wildly ambitious epic imparts a devastating, cumulative effect and is a filmmaking triumph, flaws and all.  

***** of ***** stars