Christopher Nolan, the master storyteller, who blends science and drama to the highest level, has come up with the bipoic of father of atom bomb "Robert Oppenheimer". He chose brilliant actor Cillian Murphy to play the lead. Though Cillian has been part of Nolan's movies before, they were either supporting characters or cameo, but not as a lead.
Story :- The movie starts at a time with 4 narrations. AEC hearing of Oppenheimer (Cillian) to revoke his security clearance, Senate questioning the links between Oppenheimer and Lewis Stauss (Robert Downey Jr.), Oppenheimer's initial days as a student, Strauss and Oppenheimer's interactions. Nolan preferred such kind of screenplay, to generate interest in an otherwise normal drama. It would take around 10 minutes to settle down and understand this. The entire story revolves around how Oppenheimer along with his team at Los Alamos built and tested atom bomb, what we're the hurdles, how it is used and what was the aftermath, politics surrounding him, egos of the scientists, spies within the team, his personal life, his stand on war and usage of bombs, his fight to prove his loyalty etc.
Performances :- All the actors lived their characters. However, Robert Downey Jr and Cillian Murphy stole the limelight with their top notch performances. This is kind of revelation for Robert, with subtle yet effective portrayal. His character needs to be looked composed though it has lot of other emotions inside, he just nailed it. Matt Damon as Leslie Groves had a decent supporting character, which he handled well. Casey Affleck did a small cameo. Rami Malek also did a cameo, which turned out to be the turning point in the entire plot, which is revealed during the climax. The Einstein character was a perfect replica of what we would have seen in the photos till date. Florence pugh as Oppenheimer's love interest also had a peculiar character and she was apt. Emily Blunt as Mrs. Oppenheimer also had good scope to show lot of emotions and she is pretty good. When Oppenheimer is down or confused, she motivates him. Cillian was fabulous, to say the least. This film should be able to bag him and Robert an Oscar. As an enthusiastic student, a visionary scientist, a goral oriented leader, a partial communist, a guilty atomic bomb creator, he had many shades and lot of struggle within, which he emoted really well.
Technicians :- Sound designing of the film is terrific. The scene where Oppenheimer gives speech after the atomic bomb test was prime example, capturing the foot tapping and silence in his brain at at time. Current story was narrated in black & white and past versions in colour. Cinematography, colour tone and costumes were perfectly maintained for the mood. Unlike Inception, Interstellar, Tenet, in this move Nolan didn't bring complicated science theories into execution and confused us. Being a biopic, he stuck to the narration from 2 individuals perspective. He extracted fabulous performances from all the characters. The atomic bomb testing scene was of utter brilliance perfectly setting up the premise, with excellent visuals and sound, natural reactions. He didn't go for cinematic high moments, but just kept it natural and original. This is not an action adventure or political drama, it's a complete dialogue based drama.
Positives :-
Engaging screenplay
Solid performances
Great sound designing
Negatives :-
Not a nolan-esque science adventure
No cinematic high moments
Could be termed slow, dull
Summary :- Worth a watch for brilliant performances and screenplay. It's drama at its best. You just have to be patient enough.
Rating :- 3.5/5
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