Oppenheimer
2023
*****
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a theoretical physicist who was hired to lead the Manhattan Project. During the McCarthy era, his continued calls for international arms control and his past associations with the Communist Party turned the father of the atomic bomb to an outcast. Most biopics offer a superficial run-through of a person's career and/or private life. Christopher Nolan's ambitious and beautifully constructed drama provides a biographical story and a horrific history lesson. Nolan's script is based on American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, and it intercuts between three timelines: the development of the atomic bomb, the 1954 security hearing by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and the 1959 Senate confirmation hearing for Lewis Strauss, who became Oppenheimer's political adversary. The midsection about the Manhattan Project is the obvious dramatic high point but, although it's very dialogue-heavy, there is solid cinematic brilliance throughout the 3-hour runtime. The cast is amazing. Cillian Murphy is excellent as Oppenheimer, Emily Blunt gives a brave performance as his alcoholic wife Kitty, and Robert Downey Jr. gives a memorable turn as Strauss. Ludwig Göransson's powerful score is the icing on the cake. The film won Academy Awards for best picture and for directing, acting (Murphy and Downey), cinematography, editing, and score.
