‘Oppenheimer’ Review: Nolan’s Twist on a Biopic
A Totally Reel Review
Rate It Out of Eight
6.5/8
Oppenheimer would likely be the pinnacle of many directors’ careers, but Christopher Nolan isn’t just any director. I’ve always thought he shined the most when there’s an element of reality vs. illusion that allows him the creative freedom to elevate his vision for the big screen; I forever regret not being able to see Inception or Interstellar in theaters. While Oppenheimer is a colossal project that Nolan executes amazingly, it’s different enough from most of his other movies that I was slightly disappointed. It almost felt restrictive that he had to stay faithful to the source material American Prometheus and the historical figure. I feel like I’m in the minority that wasn’t blown away by this movie, but Christopher Nolan has such a stellar reputation that inevitably some people will feel disappointed.
I do appreciate that Nolan does clearly bring his own style to this biopic. Oppenheimer has many of the elements we recognize in Nolan movies: the sound and music is top-notch, the effects look beautiful (notably without CGI), the non-linear storytelling makes even the most straightforward dialogue layered, and arguably the female characters are as one-dimensional as ever (an oversimplification but I’ll elaborate). As I was trying to process my thoughts on this movie, it almost feels unfair to compare this to other Nolan films. I appreciate Oppenheimer a lot more when compared to other biopics like The Theory of Everything, The Darkest Hour, or Elvis rather than to Interstellar or Inception.
I was incredibly lucky to be able to watch this on Thursday night at a 70mm IMAX screening (only 19 theaters in the country can support it). Seeing Cillian Murphy’s face projected on a screen 5 stories high automatically elevated the whole experience. As with most Nolan movies, I need to rewatch before I can fully understand everything but sadly all the IMAX screenings in NYC are booked through mid-August so everyone will have to make do with my incoherent first impressions from 3 am on a weeknight.
I’ll dive into spoilers, if you haven’t seen the movie, please skip to Nolan’s Oscar Contender.
The Trinity Test and the Never-Ending Second Act
Again, I seem to be in the minority here that didn’t love the first and second acts, especially the very long stretch at Los Alamos. I have no problem with dialogue heavy movies, but military operations, weapons development, and war movies in general have never interested me much. I’d much rather watch world leaders and politicians make high-level decisions during wartime than watch the actual military operations.
I knew very little about J. Robert Oppenheimer going into this movie other than what we learn in history class about the atomic bomb, so the first act was engaging as it fleshed out Oppenheimer’s character before the start of the Manhattan Project. The constant cuts to other characters or jumps to future events forces you to stay focused. However, by the time we got to the Trinity Test, I was excited to see it partly because I knew that would be the end of the Los Alamos section. Personally, I felt like the momentum had slowed in the second act as it was a lot of scientists talking about theoretical physics. Sprinkle in a few moments of comedic relief from Matt Damon and Rami Malek and that’s basically the second hour (I’m going to hell for laughing at the Kyoto joke). It was such a shame that such a stacked cast list meant that screen time was stretched thin (even though it’s 3 hours long). It was also slightly distracting to keep thinking “where have I seen this actor before?” every few minutes.
The Trinity Test itself, though, redeemed the preceding hour. Christopher Nolan did an incredible job building up the suspense in the sequence leading up to the test; the score gave me chills, the performances from each of the scientists were top-notch, and the countdown further elevated my anxiety levels. Obviously everyone knows what happened, but there was also quiet anticipation to see the full effect of Nolan’s vision, especially since there was no CGI involved. I loved his choice to stop the music when the bomb went off, it subverted expectations of a loud explosion and instead we just hear Cillian’s heavy breathing as he’s processing what he’s created. The entire theater sat in awe looking at the explosion and when the sound finally came back on, it felt like a tidal wave knocking us back. Later on Nolan also cuts out the sound (I believe it was when he gave a speech to the cheering civilians at Los Alamos) and I physically jumped in my seat when it came back on. I only wish the trailers and promotional posters hadn’t shown so much of the explosion already, it would’ve been such a treat to go in blind.
The Controversial Third Act That Almost Saved the Movie
I sound like a broken record, but I actually really loved the third act. It was everything the second act was missing. The intrigue, the backstabbing, the political games are what I live for and I loved seeing Nolan’s take on it. If other people felt like his talents were wasted on courtroom drama, that was exactly how I felt about the Los Alamos sequences. The cuts to Strauss’s (Robert Downey Jr) confirmation hearings, which we saw bits of in the beginning, helped frame some context for the entire third act as we know the eventual outcome. Now, we start to see the puzzle pieces fall together. The confirmation hearing scenes were confusing in the first act, but paid off as we rolled into the final hour. Nolan had to keep audiences engaged after the Trinity test and relies on his classic non-linear narrative structure.
I do want to call out one of the final scenes in the hearing when Oppenheimer is being cross-examined by Roger Robb, when the editing cuts frantically between the two and flashes back to previous points in Oppenheimer’s life leading up to that moment. It built up the tension and also gave us a glimpse into the psychological toll of the atomic bomb on Oppenheimer’s conscience.
Another interesting creative choice is the scene in the interrogation room where Florence Pugh is on top of Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt just watches from a corner. The bluntness and absurdity of the vision of those two in the room, surrounded by men in suits, transports us into the mind of Kitty Oppenheimer. Nolan could’ve chosen to just use a reaction shot of Emily Blunt when Jean Tatlock is brought up, but this visually puts Kitty’s feelings in our faces and forces us to confront the intensity of her emotions. Hence, it’s that much more impactful when she’s called forward to give her statement.
I think another reason I loved the third act so much was because it finally made me sympathize with Oppenheimer. The first act didn’t shy away from painting him as a tortured, self-obsessed genius (trying to poison his tutor didn’t help). The fact that he created the most destructive weapon in human history doesn’t exactly endear us to him. I just didn’t find myself too invested in him until the third act. We see how he grapples with the consequences of his discovery as the magnitude of the destruction sinks in. I would really love to see a version of this movie that begins with the Trinity Test and focuses primarily on the years after. I want to see the psychological toll it took on Oppenheimer, but it felt sidelined in the last hour as it was combined with the Strauss witch hunt. I know that the moral questions were brought up throughout the film, but I also know that Nolan absolutely could make a movie purely on the years after 1945 and still make it riveting.
Robert Downey Jr. had a fantastic performance as Lewis Strauss, the single most annoying character. He was so petty and unlikable that I automatically sympathized with Oppenheimer simply because of how self-absorbed Strauss is. Alden Ehrenreich, who played the Senate aide, was a stand-in for the audience as he pieced together that Strauss was the one feeding confidential files to frame Oppenheimer. It just made it that much more satisfying when he was denied the cabinet position.
Justice for the Women in Oppenheimer
I’m not the first person to criticize Nolan for not writing the best female characters. I doubt any of his movies pass the Bechdel test. At least in Oppenheimer, there’s some progress made, though I personally think it’s mostly Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh’s talent carrying it rather than Nolan’s writing. I do want to acknowledge that since this movie is based on a book, I’m not sure how much of this is due to Nolan’s creative choices in adapting the screenplay and how much is just the limited role of these two women in the actual source material.
Unsurprisingly, this movie is focused on male characters for 95% of the three-hour runtime. Jean Tatlock is really only ever used to drive Oppenheimer forward — her actions push him into his marriage with Kitty and her suicide haunts him, but she never exists as her own entity. Florence Pugh does the best she can with the limited script (and clothes) she’s given. I understand the whole movie centers around Oppenheimer and therefore every character exists in relation to him, but I’m not asking for Greta Gerwig levels of complex female characters, just that Florence Pugh gets a few more minutes to shine in this 3 hour movie. And preferably with some clothes on — mostly talking about the last time he saw her, there really was no reason for her to be topless.
Emily Blunt was a surprising highlight of this movie and I won’t be surprised if she gets a Supporting Actress nomination from the Academy. Behind every successful man is a wife standing in his shadows, constantly offering support and discreetly putting up with indiscretions. I would love to see more movies like Jackie that focus solely on the wives of some of the most famous men in history. Oppenheimer didn’t give Emily Blunt much to work with in the first two acts, but her interview with Roger Robb in the third act was incredibly compelling. The entire movie is through Oppenheimer’s eyes but in that one scene I mentioned previously (when we see Florence on top of Cillian), we’re transported temporarily into Kitty’s perspective. She puts up with a lot from him but won’t stand to be publicly humiliated. I was half expecting her to retaliate against him during her statement and it would’ve been justified, but instead she firmly, and aggressively, stood by her husband. Her death glare to Edward Teller in the very end and overall pettiness was just the cherry on top.
Nolan’s Oscar Contender
My main problem with Oppenheimer is that I never connected emotionally with his character as the repercussions of the atomic bomb felt rushed. Along the way Nolan’s somehow gotten a reputation for being an “emotionless” director and I never really agreed with that until now. The narrative structure of this movie made it hard for me to sympathize with or at least be invested in what happens to Oppenhimer. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, I’d be curious to hear other people’s thoughts.
Despite all this, I do want to give credit to the performances from the cast, the editing, and music which were all perfect. Cillian Murphy was incredible and so were Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt. Cillian Murphy better get his first Oscar nomination if not the actual statue itself (though it’s still early in the year for Oscar predictions). The editing and music I’ve already talked about throughout, but they worked together so well to build suspense and keep the audience engaged all three hours. I’m not saying this movie is Oscar bait, but it does feel much more catered towards the Academy than his previous ones. I’m predicting one or two acting nominations but can’t say for the rest, if even Dunkirk (war movies are the ultimate Oscar bait) couldn’t get more than two nominations, I’m not sure if this is will change the trend.
While the sound and editing were great, the cinematography didn’t stand out too much to me. Not to say it wasn’t good, it just wasn’t as memorable as other elements. A lot of Nolan’s movies, especially Interstellar, will have some shots that are just jaw-dropping but I can’t think of any especially memorable ones right now from Oppenheimer. However, I absolutely love that Nolan chose to shoot on 70mm film and that IMAX made special accommodations to show a 3-hour film. It speaks to his influence in the industry and I respect that he keeps pushing the limits for the sake of his art.
And now for some of my favorite Letterboxd reviews. My friend and I had a brief discussion at 4 am after the viewing with a few comments of substance, but it quickly devolved into Cillian Murphy appreciation hour. I tried to keep that out of the actual review, but I’ll just dump it all here instead
