Oppenheimer (2022). Finally I got around to watching the second most-talked about film this year (the first, the B-Movie, I will skip at least until it becomes available on MOD). I have a few issues with this film. The length is not my main issue. But after three hours ran out, I came out with the strong feeling that I just watched a three-hour long trailer of the movie Oppenheimer. The choppy editing, the jittery camerawork, and the perpetually bombastic sound usually come together in a three-minute trailer. This movie never relaxes its frantic grip, and it feels extremely weird and unsettling. The struggles of the creator of the nuclear bomb, both political and personal, are too hectic to truly sympathize with (although his visions are quite artistic). In fact, I was having the hardest time understanding what exactly was the controversy with Robert Oppenheimer in 1954. The fact that he had previously been a Communist? This was resolved ten years prior, when he was put in charge of the Manhattan Project. That he was about to pass the bomb secrets to the Soviets? He is not at any point charged with it. A simple matter of a government committee renewing or not renewing his top secret clearance is presented like a Spanish Inquisition trial! There are, of course, Oppenheimer’s personal torments and infidelities, and there is even a backstabbing colleague. But, like my son said, “they made it look like he is fighting for his life.” This brought the memories of another movie with a similar issue: Sully. A hero pilot who “landed” the airplane in the Hudson River, saving numerous lives, in the movie is put through a terrible ordeal by a malevolent commission, hellbent on destroying him, for the sole purpose of “dramatization.” Same thing here. I would think, the internal struggle of the man, summed up in his ever-famous “I have become death” sentence, was enough for a full-fledged drama. Cillian Murphy finally lands his first blockbuster lead, and he is excellent (his voice reminds me of Jeremy Irons), in fact – he is probably the best thing about this movie. Another excellent choice is Jason Bourne… I meant Matt Damon, for the army general who oversees the project. But director Christopher Nolan goes further: he adds a perpetually naked first wife, a bitchy second wife (Emily Blunt barely scratches the surface of her talents), an AEC schemer (a better-than-usual Robert Downing Jr.), a harassing committee prosecutor, and others, including Woody Allen-style cameos from very famous actors (Kenneth Brannaugh, Matthew Modine, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Gary Oldman) – all strictly for the dramatic effect that felt superfluous. My main hope is that it will make people at least read some Wikipedia: the creation of the bomb and biographies of the brilliant minds behind it is quite fascinating. But as a movie, honestly, I was not too impressed. For someone who felt that Dunkirk was too slow and Interstellar too meticulous (until the last part with strings, where I felt Nolan lost interest), Oppenheimer feels like both, and, I suspect, like both of them, it will massively be talked about and forgotten shortly after its Oscar nomination. I still maintain Nolan’s debut Memento was his best work. Hell, I’ll maintain that the atomic explosion in Oppenheimer is not as visually (or sonically) impressive as the one in Dr. Strangelove. 6/10
