Oppenheimer
English (Theatres)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh
Rating: 2/5
Maybe I don’t know enough about filmmaking. Maybe I don’t know enough about the nuances of human expression on screen. And, yet I assume I know the difference between a good film and a bad one. Ignorance is the most human of follies, and of that, I am genuinely guilty.
I am, however, not guilty that I enjoyed the interval and the exit more than the three hours I spent watching an entropy called ‘Oppenheimer’. Hardly a nice feeling to walk away with, as director Christopher Nolan has delivered more often than he has failed, and the American theoretical physicist on whose life and times the movie is based is close to my heart. Robert J Oppenheimer, as history has chronicled all too well, is credited with being the father of the atomic bomb. The fact, however, is that Oppenheimer would have hardly become Nolan’s latest muse had it not been for his heart-wrenching moral conflict.
Oppenheimer, though fully invested in the creation of nuclear bombs via the Manhattan Project, was always painfully ambivalent about his participation.
He was led to believe by a hierarchy of suits that his creation was going to end an already concluded World War II. And so, Oppenheimer let hubris and an enforced sense of duty deter his morality, but he knew all along that he had given the world a giant red button. Press it, and poof!
Understandably, Cillian Murphy of Peaky Blinders’ fame was chosen to evoke this grating of the conscience.
So, Nolan had the best cast in recent memory at his disposal, a new IMAX 70mm camera to play with, a legion of loyal fans, and a story worth the 80-year wait.
But regrettably, he let himself come in the way of what could have been the best movie in years by trying to force viewers to feel, think, and react like he might have. And let’s not talk about the incessant and incorrigible background score.
Perhaps in time, the film will grow on those who aren’t part of the beret-wearing, Jean-Luc Godard-citing crowd, with ‘neoliberalism’ on their tongues for fun.
Until then, to lay people invested in pure entertainment, this is a drag. But then again, what do I know?