J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is one of the brightest minds in the world, during a time of death and destruction at the hands of the Germans and the Japanese. Once a communist sympathizer, a college professor, and a womanizer, he must use his intellect to construct the first ever atomic bomb before the Nazis can. It’s a race against time, and every step of the way will be faced with criticism and struggle. Even years later he will face scrutiny, never sure if he made the right decision.
Let’s not beat around the bush, Oppenheimer may just be the greatest film ever made. That’s a bold statement for sure, and I’ve only seen the film once up to this point–but my initial reaction after leaving the theater is that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything better and that it’s as close to a perfect film as I’ve ever seen.
Starting with Writer-Director Christopher Nolan, he needs to win an Oscar for this. For best picture, for best director, for best adapted screenplay. Through July there is nothing so far that comes close to being better in these regards. Nolan has found a way to turn a book into a film where everything comes to life vibrantly, honestly, viscerally–and yet we feel like we are in the pages of Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin’s book. We are reading the dialogue like a book, fully immersed in its power and its passion. There’s nothing quite like this, and while Nolan has created incredible films time and time again, this is his best venture yet. The film is bookended in the perfect way, the use of light and sound to tell the story of Oppenheimer couldn’t have been done any better, and things as simple as a character placement throughout the course of the film never fails to intrigue. This is a complete performance by Nolan, something that he’s often come so close to accomplishing, but this is the time that he ultimately succeeds.
Murphy is another individual that has always dabbled in near-perfect performances. He’s always found himself in the mix, surrounded by stellar acting and maybe existed just beneath everyone else. To be fair he’s been paired with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale, so there’s no shame in coming in second to them–but here he, for the first time that I’ve seen him, takes on the role of the lead and puts on one of the greatest performances in modern history. He’s cold, yet passionate. He’s boisterous, yet reserved. He finds himself thrown into awkward sex scenes, and then he’s forced to become the dominant scientific mind that many knew Oppenheimer to be. Oppenheimer requires Murphy to be and do everything. There is no emotion left unexplored, there is no corner of this character (or of mankind) that Murphy isn’t asked to entertain and deliver on–and boy does he deliver. Like Nolan, I think it’s time for Murphy to win an Oscar–to be recognized in front of the world for being the best actor in 2023. The year is only half over, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find a better performance in the second half of the year.
Narratively there are about one hundred different things going on at any given time. Stories step on one another, they duke it out to see which one will be the main storyline (if any of them will be). Yet, nothing is overwhelming (well, other than the fact that we are reminded time and time again that bombs capable of destroying mankind exist all over the world now). While everything is competing, they all blend together–and not in the sense that they become blurry, but in the sense that they become one, all-inclusive story that transcends the depths of humanity, explores the darkest parts of our world, and still manages to nestle itself in the hearts of anyone and everyone watching. Oppenheimer sees so many things happening at once, and not in a linear fashion–and everything plays out brilliantly, in a way that is easy enough to understand and accessible to all.
I previously mentioned the use of light and sound to help tell the story of Oppenheimer, but just to mention them doesn’t do them justice. Without these things being used the way they were, there are moments of the film that don’t reach viewers, that don’t allow viewers to be pulled into the film and feel what Oppenheimer himself would have been feeling. The sound is often deafening, and the light blinding–and that works in a number of ways for the film. Sure, it strengthens the story and helps viewers to fit into the shoes of Oppenheimer, but it helps to represent the reality of what the world as a whole was experiencing at that point in history. Oppenheimer, while focused primarily on that titular character, is a look into what the world was like during the development of the atomic bomb–the full scope of humanity at the time.
Oppenheimer is unapologetic, and it refused to pull any punches throughout the course of its three-hour run time. The film feels every bit of three hours, but not a moment feels wasted, not a line or even a single word. The combination of Nolan and Murphy is impeccable, damn near perfect. Oppenheimer is as close to perfect as I think is humanly possible–and, again, it just might be the best film of all time.
Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Written by Christopher Nolan, Kai Bird, & Martin Sherwin.
Starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey, Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, etc.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10
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