FILM REVIEW: Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" is a rich, propulsive drama
Trust Christopher Nolan to make a talky, 3-hour political drama one of the most purely thrilling blockbusters of the past few years. Of course, it helps that there’s a powerful figure at the centre of this story; Robert J. Oppenheimer, physicist and infamously known as the father of the atomic bomb.
The film is split into two narratives that run parallel and occasionally inform each other: the race against time to build the atomic bomb, and a conspiracy to tarnish Oppenheimer’s reputation amidst an arms race with the Soviet Union.
The latter storyline, though less fascinating on the face of it, is equally chilling in its depiction of the brutal realities of human nature. Masterful performances from the entire cast match the gravity of the subject matter, but this whole enterprise rests on Cillian Murphy’s face. His alarmingly blue eyes and gaunt visage convey a deeply intelligent, tormented spirit, and it almost goes without saying that he’ll be walking up to that podium to accept his Oscar in a few months.
With Oppenheimer, Nolan and his team avoid tepid biopic tropes by deploying non-linear storytelling, the effect of which amounts to a deft unveiling of intricate motivations and power plays. This virtuosic assembly of the narrative pieces is just as riveting as the facts. Ludwig Goransson’s pounding score ties all the elements together, making simple dialogue scenes as riveting as any action sequence. The craft on display is a rich pleasure that rewards full engagement.
But look, I’d be lying if I said the first thirty minutes wasn’t something of a struggle to keep pace with, as I was attempting to figure out who’s who and doing what and so on, before a brutish transition would throw me into the next fast-paced scene. As the film settled down and found its rhythm though, my patience was rewarded ten-fold until the pulse-pounding last few sequences.
Films on the scale of Oppenheimer don’t come around often, so you owe it to yourself to see it on the biggest screen possible. This is Nolan’s best work yet.
