Oppenheimer (2023)

The biographical film about the father of the atomic bomb, directed by the famous director of Memento, Interstellar, and Dunkirk, is undoubtedly ambitious, but that does not guarantee that it is the best.

In this film directed and written by Christopher Nolan, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book "American Prometheus," a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin and published in 2005, the family life of the American physicist is not addressed. Thanks to an excellent editing job by Jennifer Lame (Frances Ha, Midsommar, Tenet), what is presented is a frenetic and grandiose political thriller filmed in IMAX that tries to capture some moments of his formation and delve into his privileged mind.

But beyond being a film about Oppenheimer's life, Nolan's focus is on the creation of the first atomic bomb, just like "Fat Man and Little Boy," Roland Joffé's forgotten 1989 film in which Dwight Shultz (the crazy Murdock from the series The A-Team) played Oppenheimer. Unlike "Barefoot Gen," the gruesome 1983 anime about the dropping of the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, the tragic incident that led to Japan's surrender, this terrible event is only mentioned but not shown. Those who expected to see Tom Hardy masked and piloting the Enola Gay will be greatly disappointed.

During World War II, with the fear that the Germans could develop nuclear weapons, the United States initiated the Manhattan Project, a secret program aimed at developing the atomic bomb. In 1942, Oppenheimer was appointed scientific director of the project due to his experience and leadership, and he brought together a group of outstanding scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where they worked on the design and development of the weapon of mass destruction. Under his direction, two types of bombs were produced: an enriched uranium bomb called "Little Boy" and a plutonium bomb known as "Fat Man" (hence the title of Joffé's film).

In 1945, the first successful nuclear test was conducted in Alamogordo, New Mexico, which is captured in Nolan's film with all its splendor and power. After President Harry S. Truman authorized the dropping of the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Oppenheimer became an American hero and received numerous honors and awards for his work. However, during the Cold War, the physicist was accused of being a sympathizer of the Communist Party, and his political background was investigated by the United States government. In 1954, Oppenheimer was stripped of his security clearance due to his opinions and political leanings of the past. This entire process is a central part of the film.

The fragmented narrative structure characteristic of Nolan is present, although not in such a complex and sophisticated way as in Memento and Dunkirk (still his best films to date). In fact, the way the story of the Manhattan Project and the persecution of Oppenheimer is told reminds us of JFK, Oliver Stone's paranoid 1991 film about the conspiracy behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Sadly, Nolan's Achilles' heel, which is deafening music that doesn't allow us to think but does give his films an epic and overwhelming dimension (think of Inception), is more than present here. In Dunkirk, the musical resource was used precisely and intelligently by Hans Zimmer, but in Oppenheimer, the score by Ludwig Göransson is overacted and, like a giant vase in the center of the table, prevents us from seeing what is happening.

But this does not mean that Nolan's film is a disappointing work, far from it. It is exaggerated to say that this is his best work, but it is not to say that this is his biggest film in every sense. The best of Oppenheimer is found in the masterful sequence of the first detonation in Alamogordo, which includes a visual and sound design that reminds us why Christopher Nolan is so highly regarded. However, it is worth remembering that David Lynch had already taken us into the nuclear hell, in a grandiose and avant-garde chapter of his third season of Twin Peaks, even though the intentions of the two directors were very different.

But Oppenheimer's power also lies in its performances. Cillian Murphy uses the stoicism, introversion, traumas, and mystery that he brought to the mafioso Thomas Shelby in the excellent series Peaky Blinders, to craft his portrait of the New York physicist. Murphy's Oppenheimer is egotistical and irresponsible, as described by Lieutenant General Leslie Groves (played with ferocity by Paul Newman in Joffé's film and here in a gentler way by Matt Damon), but he is also one of those people with a privileged brain who sees the world differently (Nolan manages to show this eloquently) and a person whose love for science makes him forget a fundamental principle, which is that rationality must always ensure the progress and well-being of humanity. As this film shows, Oppenheimer learns the lesson, but he does so too late.

However, the best performance in the film (and of the year) is that of Robert Downey Jr., who sheds his superhero armor to become the viperous Lewis Strauss, the not-so-humble shoe salesman who ended up leading the United States Atomic Energy Commission and who is portrayed here as a Judas to Oppenheimer. Downey had already shown an impressive acting caliber by embodying Chaplin in Richard Attenborough's 1992 film (a task that was not easy), and as Joseph Wershba in George Clooney's masterpiece Good Night, and Good Luck (one of the best films about journalism of all time). But his portrayal of Strauss is splendid and should be recognized at the next Academy Awards.

The women in Oppenheimer's life (a person who was unfaithful and womanizing, contrary to the stereotypes with which scientists are described) also stand out in Nolan's film. Florence Pugh perfectly embodies Jean Tatlock, the psychiatrist and member of the American Communist Party with whom Oppenheimer had an intense and tumultuous relationship (curiously, this is the most sexual film in the director's filmography). And Emily Blunt is magnificent as Katherine Oppenheimer, the alcoholic and tolerant but combative spirit wife.

The similarities with Stone's JFK are not limited to the bombardment of flashbacks and flashforwards or to the combination of color and black-and-white scenes (courtesy of the talented cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, a regular collaborator of Nolan), but also to the strategy carried out by Oliver Stone of summoning an extensive cast of stars who are called upon to play brief roles with a precise and necessary forcefulness so that viewers can easily recognize who is who.

This is the case of Jason Clarke, who unleashes tremendous energy as Roger Robb, a member of the audience who reviewed Oppenheimer's political activities; Gary Oldman is diabolical as President Harry S. Truman; Josh Harnett reminds us what a good actor he is as nuclear chemist Ernest Orlando Lawrence; the pleasantly welcomed Casey Affleck and Dane DeHaan are paranoia personified playing military Boris Pash and Kenneth Nichols, respectively.

Kenneth Branagh gives the necessary air of respect and dignity to Danish physicist Niels Bohr; Matthew Modine is on point as engineer Vannevar Bush; David D

astmalchian is pure venom as William Borden, the person who accused Oppenheimer of endangering American interests; veteran James Remar gives weight to statesman Henry L. Stimson; and Benny Safdie (one of the directing brothers of the magnificent Uncut Gems and Good Time) embodies physicist Edward Teller, the father of the H-bomb, as a man on the brink of sociopathy. Alongside them, we find Jack Quaid from The Boys as physicist Richard Feynman; Rami Malek as David Hill, the man who will become one of Oppenheimer's main defenders; and Tom Conti returns to the cinema playing none other than Albert Einstein.

Contrary to what social media wants us to believe, Oppenheimer is not one of those movies for teenagers (or for adults with a teenager mentality) that dominate the multiplexes (its parallelism with Barbie is absurd). Nolan's film is made by adults for adults, and it is a blessing that this story did not fall into the jingoistic and biased hands of Michael Bay, the director of the infamous Pearl Harbor.

However, Nolan is not Kubrick, as some insist on making that comparison, nor is he the new David Lean, an author whom Spielberg approaches but does not surpass. For this reason, his attempts to delve into the psychology of his protagonist are not entirely successful, the approach to the sociopolitical context in World War II and the Cold War feels scattered, the discussions about quantum physics are unsophisticated and childish; and the moral discourse does not become hypocritical, but it is extremely ambiguous.

Many refer to Terminator 2, Titanic, and (oops!) Avatar as James Cameron's great triumphs, but his true achievement is found in the first Terminator, a low-budget film, but a round masterpiece to which nothing is missing or lacking, as is Nolan's Memento. Oppenheimer may be the biggest film in this director's career, but it is definitely not the best. It is worth remembering that less is more.