DIANE DE BEER
OPPENHEIMER
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey JR, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, with Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh
VENUES: Check the IMAX cinemas in your vicinity
It’s been quite a happening at cinemas around the country (and I think the rest of the world.) It’s even been given a name – Barbenheimer. That refers to the two new movies recently opening on circuit, Oppenheimer and Barbie.
And yes, they couldn’t be more different but for some reason they have both gripped the imagination of cinema goers. Having just seen Oppenheimer, I can see why. Barbie is a more obvious box office hit because apart from a particular phenomenon, the producers have embraced a huge audience with the choice of Greta Gerwig who is regarded as one of the smartest young directors around.
Oppenheimer is the one that interested me first and perhaps as much because of the hype but also the director Christopher Nolan. And this was to me the biggest surprise.
In short, the film focusses on physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the man leading, cajoling, inspiring the scientists taking part in the top-secret Manhattan Project where years were spent developing and designing the first atomic bomb. What makes this so fascinating is that the film deals with the man who lead the team rather than spotlighting the bomb and how that was developed.
But also, Nolan’s approach caught me by surprise. There are challenges which includes the length of the movie which is three hours. That’s quite an investment – but take it.
More even than the facts surrounding the film, it is the film itself and how it was made that truly knocked me sideways. Sometimes the frames move so fast that one conversation moves to a few destinations in one sentence. And it happens seamlessly.
Nolan must have done a ton of work before filming even started. Every frame is a small artwork and the whole rushes by without time being an issue. It’s magnificent.
It’s also a huge bonus if you could see it in an IMAX because of the way it plays with the enormity of the first atom bomb , the explosion and the sound that all of that will produce. But everything with the emphasis on the enormity of the event and how it will reverberate through time. Robert Oppenheimer was always aware that once the first atom bomb was exploded you couldn’t turn back. That would be the start of the biggest arms race …
And think of current atomic threats in the hands of leaders many take seriously.
But also what draws the crowd I think is a spectacular cast starting with Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer. Not only does he look like the real man, he embodies him in every nuance of his movements and thoughts. It has Oscar written all over it as he holds you in the palm of his hand throughout. Oppenheimer was a maverick, an outsider but also someone who initially liked the celebrity that came with his success of exploding the first bomb – until he didn’t. And that’s where the performance holds sway, a man with many sides and shades. Murphy captures all of that.
The supporting cast is no less impressive. Robert Downey Jr plays the protagonist Lewis Strauss, Matt Damon the general, Leslie Groves (and I was again reminded of his strong acting ability) and there’s Rami Malek, Jack Quaid and Josh Hartnett, as well as Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife and Florence Pugh as his passion Jean Tatlock. Tom Conti does a glorious turn as Einstein, an inspired choice, but then all of them are. And the film needed that.
I could go on and on but rather see it. It was a wonderful unexpected magnificent experience because of a director who told the story with such a good hold on all the larger themes and did it in a way that was so deliciously creative.
De Beer Necessities 