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Oppenheimer (2023)

I have been looking forward to this film for over a year. Ever since I heard about it I knew I wanted to see it and my main worry going into the screening was similar to the worry I had when I went to see 'Last Night in Soho' was whether it would live up to my expectations. Like 'Last Night in Soho' I am relieved to say that those worries were unfounded. Oppenheimer is a brilliant film and probably my favourite Nolan film since 'Insomnia' (I have to state that I haven't seem 'Memento'). 

The film follows Oppenheimer (played superbly by Cillian Murphy) as he helps create the atomic bomb but in a way the film is actually about the complexities of Oppenheimer. How his relationship with women wasnt normal and how he was basically picked on by the U.S government because he may have been a communist even though the film shows that he may have liked the ideas of the communist party he wasnt a member of the party even though everyone around him seems to have been. Even after the bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the film focuses its attention on the security briefing hearings and how the U.S. government were trying their best to screw Oppenheimer and there is a mystery at the beginning of the film about what Oppenheimer and Einstein said to each other which we dont hear and its finally revealed at the end and in the hands of a lesser director it would have been an anti-climax but with Nolan, it becomes a lovely moment and worth the nearly 2 and a half hour wait.


Cillian Murphy is excellent as Oppenheimer and even though he is always good in whatever he is in he is on another level here. Robert Downey Jr almost steels the show for me as he is so horrible to Oppenheimer and deceptive that he makes you forget he was ever Iron Man. Emily Blunt is very good as Kitty in a role which is really tough to deliver convincingly because Kitty was a very complex person and Florence Pugh does well with her brief role as Jean Tatlock.


The film has the highest number of big names in one place since Avengers Endgame (probably more). There is Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Conti, Josh Hartnett, Matt Damon, Jack Quaid, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, James Remar & Gary Oldman and all of them are very good. Matt Damon was according to IMDB trivia, on a break from acting as a promise to his wife and the only condition for this break was that he could return to acting if Christopher Nolan came calling which he obviously did and its a great performance from Damon. His best probably since the Jason Bourne films.


Nolan deserves a lot of praise for this film. I was really disappointed with Tenet because I felt like it was Nolan being way too smart for his own good. Inception was a smart film but Tenet made that film feel like it was for dummies. This is a massive return to form. I thought that at 3 hours it was going to drag but it never did. I was NEVER bored at any point and 90 minutes films have felt longer than Oppenheimer. This is because Nolan always ensures something interesting is happening. He has written a screenplay which has lot of science in it but makes it clear enough so everyone can understand it (to a point). He also has all these big names and gives them enough material to shine and show what they can do. 


Oppenheimer is currently my favourite film of the year. Its the first 5 star film since 'The Banshees of Inisherin' and if this isn't my film of the year by the time we go into 2024 then I am really looking forward to what is yet to come. There is a great documentary called 'To End All War: Oppenheimer & the Atomic Bomb' (https://boxd.it/HqSy) which is an excellent companion piece to this movie and shows how good the attention to detail was in 'Oppenheimer'


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