274. Oppenheimer; movie review

 

OPPENHEIMER

Cert 15

173 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong language, sex

It is expected to receive multiple Oscar nominations but does Oppenheimer live up to the hype?

Thanks to Christopher Nolan's attention to detail and the incredible number of stars among its cast, it is definitely worth watching.

There is much to admire in the parallel stories of Robert Oppenheimer's creation of the atomic bomb and the political intrigue surrounding his fall from grace.

However, the movie jolts between timelines, presumes a significant amount of historical knowledge and, at three hours, is simply too long.

That said, I can certainly see why the Academy Award judges would favour its stars, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.

Murphy plays the title character - a genius physicist who has an unyielding obsession with exploring the limits of scientific theories.

However, he courts controversy because so many of his friends and family have allegiances to the communist party.

So, despite being entrusted with the A-bomb programme during the Second World War, he is under deep political scrutiny a few short years later.

Thus, we see the two hearings presenting the case against Oppenheimer with flashbacks to his life as a university professor and his recruitment by the US Army.

All three have relatively slow and complex openings, placing the audience in the 1950s and 1940s but presuming they know who Oppenheimer, Einstein and others were.

Interestingly, my 30-year-old daughter gave up on it after 15 minutes because she couldn't follow it.

We have the advantage of being older and I studied the history of the period but I wasn't aware of many of the characters, including Downey's, Lewis Strauss.

Murphy portrays Oppenheimer as an arrogant womaniser who is a potent mix of highly intelligent and handsome.

Emily Blunt plays his wife who is often left in the shadows, especially when he is nipping off with some rumpy-pumpy with his mistress (Florence Pugh).

I should mention that Pugh's naked sex scenes feel gratuitous in the extreme.

Anyway, Blunt and Pugh are among the avalanche of star blink-and-you-will-miss-them cameos from Remi Malek, Gary Oldman, Josh Peck, Casey Affleck, Tom Conti, Kenneth Branagh, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan, Matthew Modine among many others.

Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett and Jason Clarke fill meatier roles.

Thus, on every level Oppenheimer is so big it feels as if nothing is left out of one of the 20th-century's most important stories.

It may well sweep the Oscar board and is a very fine, visually stunning and thought-provoking film that explores the complexities of science, politics, and humanity.

But an all-time classic? Not for me.

Reasons to watch: One of the films of the year

Reasons to avoid: Needs background knowledge

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 9/10

Did you know? Matt Damon was on a break from acting as a promise to his wife, with one condition: it would go on hold if Christopher Nolan called. The break was ended when Nolan offered Damon the role of General Leslie Groves.

The final word. "If movies are a sort of collective dream, there's a sense in which Oppenheimer's a collective nightmare. Of all of the subject matter I've dealt with, it's certainly the darkest." NPR

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