OPPENHEIMER (2023)

OPPENHEIMER (2023)

Tagline: The World Forever Changes

(Drama, Biography, Welcome to The End of the World) [R]

They won't fear it until they understand it. And they won't understand it until they've used it. 

Based on the book "American Prometheus", this film covers the part of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life when America found itself in a race to come up with a weapon so powerful that unleashing it could mean the end of all wars…the atomic bomb. 

First off, to be honest, the first 2 hours of this thing felt a lot like the TV show Manhattan which ran for 2 seasons between 2014 and 2015. The two exceptions would be that Nolan threw a couple of graphic sex scenes, one of which seemed to be no real reason. The other exception would be the camera work and focus on the central characters. Then director Christopher Nolan ratchets up the drama and intrigue as the movie really starts to get going in the final hour. 

Acting wise this thing was a triumph, especially from Cillian Murphy (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES) as Oppenheimer and Robert Downey Jr. (IRON MAN) as Lewis Strauss. Both played extremely unlikable characters well. The same can be said for Emily Blunt (JUNGLE CRUISE) who is also extremely good as Kitty Oppenheimer. As per usual I couldn’t stand Matt Damon (THE GREAT WALL) in this, but that isn’t unusual. If there was a single moment of overacting in the entire movie, it was him. Alden Ehrenreich (COCAINE BEAR) is solid as a Senate aide in this, but doesn’t get a lot of screen time so don’t expect that. It is nice to see him in a few high-profile films just this year. We also have a Florence Pugh (BLACK WIDOW) sighting. She gets a few scenes, but quite honestly it seems like they only put her in here because someone really wanted to see “more” of her. I won’t go into the rest of the cast, but it’s so deep that almost everyone in the cast is fully recognizable. I even caught a glimpse of Michael Angarano (THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM). 

Cinematically this thing is electric. There are lots of really cool visual choices and for a 3-hour movie, most of the pacing worked, but not all of it. I will say that if they had cut an entire hour out of this film, we could have gotten nearly the same feel. In fact, I think the movie could have easily been done without most of the entire first hour. When it comes to the score, Nolan does spare us from the blaring horn-like sounds featured in most of his previous films. What he does not spare us from is a ridiculous amount of violin in the last 30 minutes. It’s so bad I almost tried to launch myself into the giant theater screen after quickly re-wiring my AMC Signature Recliner to perform the task. 

As far as the themes in the film we kind of get taken all over the place. From the hard-to-embrace flaws of Oppenheimer himself to the moral questions of even creating such a weapon. The almost creepy politics behind it all didn’t really subject us to any comfort either. The whole idea of mutually assured destruction is on full display and at least to this point, that’s worked to prevent nuclear war so far, but we are also faced with the very real threat of bigger bombs, more tactically and environmentally efficient, etc. so I didn’t see anyone skipping out of this theater singing “Eye of The Tiger” or anything like that. This is a serious film with almost no humor and really pretty much zero action.

Overall this movie is powerful, but it didn’t hit the technological horror aspects I thought they might focus on. In the end, this is a wildly successful effort to portray the source material and due to that even if the few issues it has, I still have to give it a 6 out of 7.

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