MOVIE REVIEW: Oppenheimer Is a Combination of Genius and Madness

(SPOT.ph) It is deep into Oppenheimer’s lengthy three-hour runtime that the world’s first ever detonation of a nuclear weapon called the Trinity test takes place. The past couple hours of men in suits talking to men in uniform and other men in suits have led to this moment. It almost seems like Inception and Interstellar director Christopher Nolan’s directing career has been leading up to this moment, too. The tension builds as we cut from each person involved in this launch and the countdown timer reaches zero—then boom it goes in a beautifully terrifying, theater-seat shaking explosion that will not be soon forgotten.

It is an epic set-piece that works incredibly well because of Nolan and the team he’s assembled. It may be the scene, but it’s just one section of this long film that showcases the genius filmmaking craft on screen, including directing, editing, cinematography, to the sound and score. On a technical standpoint, Oppenheimer is a stunning marvel of a film.

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What makes Oppenheimer worth the watch

Nolan’s first biographical film is about the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by frequent Nolan collaborator Cillian Murphy). We learn of Oppenheimer’s story through jumping timelines and the dizzying amount of characters that come into his life. The film takes place pre-bomb with “Oppy” in school, watching lectures from esteemed scientists like Niels Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) and dating women like communist Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), intercut with sequences during a time where it’s post-atomic bomb and he’s being courted for a position at a university by a man named Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), but it’s also intercut with the time where Oppenheimer’s been hired by a general (Matt Damon) to lead a top-secret project to create a weapon of mass destruction, and it’s also taking place post-bomb wherein Oppenheimer deals with the repercussions of his actions.

This is an extremely dense movie with tons of exposition, lots of information thrown at you quickly, many characters to meet, and Nolan doesn’t slow down for you at all. Oppenheimer is a biopic through the eyes of Nolan and presented in a way that only he can. As seen above, Oppenheimer’s life is told through different timelines, with different points of view, and featuring different aspect ratios and color palettes to distinguish them. For example, Nolan has said that the color section is subjective, and the black-and-white section is objective. The film is beating with great intensity throughout thanks to a powerful score and some great editing touches that are reminiscent of previous Nolan films. The director is operating at his best for most of this film, and it’s a sight to behold, but it’s also extremely overwhelming and can be a bit of a challenge with its long runtime.

It is Nolan’s gifts as a director, and maybe some of his strongest work as a writer, that really pull you through all that’s taking place here. His vision to tell this story about a troubled genius with too much power—and then not enough—is extraordinary. There are sequences in this film that are so powerful in a visual and aural way it makes you feel like “This is cinema.”

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Nolan has surrounded himself with artists who are most definitely on the same page. The cinematography of Nolan favorite Hoyte van Hoytema (Dunkirk, Interstellar) is visually spectacular. The editing by another Nolan alum Jennifer Lame (Tenet) is so impressive, beautifully balancing everything that Nolan has placed on her shoulders. The costumes and production design are spot-on. Nolan’s films always have an issue with sound design (see: Bane’s voice in The Dark Knight Rises or pretty much all of Dunkirk), but the sound mix here may be his best in years. The sound is terrifying when it needs to be, but you can hear everyone clearly even with all the noise and with a loud, booming score on top of it. The latter is the crowning glory of this epic film as Oscar winner (for Black Panther) Ludwig Göransson’s phenomenal score is doing some heavy lifting in a film that is 90% men talking to each other in small rooms, and it just works beautifully with what Nolan is trying to achieve.

With all the technical wizardry on display though, there’s no going around the fact that this film can feel on the whole, a little cold and distant. Sometimes it definitely feels like it is one exposition dump after another, before shifting into a different timeline that also tries to explain things. The third hour is when things really fly, but getting there can be a struggle for some. It’s not hard to understand this film on the whole, but with how dense it is, it can prove to be quite challenging to stay on top of the story or on track of all the characters coming in one scene for a few seconds and then showing up again an hour or so later appearing to be much more important than first thought.

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Whether intended, or it’s just because all these actors wanted to work with Nolan, it’s actually clever that the film uses a starry cast that’s fairly well-known that when Rami Malek appears again after brief wordless appearances, you remember them as the one played by Rami Malek, or Josh Hartnett character, or Benny Safdie, Matthew Modine, Drake & Josh actor Josh Peck, the list goes on.

This is not to say this cast isn’t operating at high levels, because they are. Murphy is at his very best, using his distinct features to play a character too smart for his own good and tortured by his decisions at every turn. The supporting cast is also wonderful, and every single person in this enormous cast is absolutely delivering in their role, no matter how short their screen time is. For example, Gary Oldman pops up for one scene and it is harrowing, while Alden Ehrenreich shows up late in the film but makes quite an impact.

However, the main supporting acts here are Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt. The former Iron Man star shakes off Tony Stark and gives his best, most lived-in performance in years. Meanwhile Blunt, playing Oppenheimer’s suffering and seemingly perpetually drunk wife Kitty, is magnificent every time she pops up on screen. Both Downey Jr. and Blunt get incredible scenes in the third hour that could easily be their Oscar clips if they end up getting nominated.

Oppenheimer is a dark, haunting tale of power and having too much of it, and then losing control and facing the consequences as told by a master at work. And though the runtime and the storytelling can feel a bit overwhelming and exhausting at times, the overall effect is absolutely stunning.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Spots.

“Oppenheimer” is now in cinemas. Photos and video credit: Universal Pictures.