Rating: R | Runtime: 180 minutes
Release Date: July 21st, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director(s): Christopher Nolan
Writer(s): Christopher Nolan / Kai Bird & Martin J. Sherwin (novel American Prometheus)

Can you hear the music?

It’s a tale of two trials. Except, of course, that neither half is a trial—a fact those presiding over both events are quick to stipulate whenever the accused (or party at threat of being “denied”) dares to call their tactics out for being unjust. One sees J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) appealing the revocation of his security clearance years after stewarding the invention of the atomic bomb. The other finds Admiral Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) seeking a cabinet appointment. Both prove that even the most cautiously optimistic belief that any nation on Earth might handle the responsibility of nuclear power was simply naïveté.

That’s what Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (adapted from the book American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin) is really about. Not how the titular character changed the world in Los Alamos. Not his life as a womanizing prophet of theoretical quantum physics. No, it’s about the reality that the bomb was a symptom (albeit much more than that to those impacted at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) of the prevailing international military industrial complex rather than its catalyst. What should have been a deterrent to war merely became the next tool to ensure we’d never see a period of time without a war raging again.

It’s a sobering thought that ultimately haunts Oppenheimer from the moment we first meet him out of time. There he is as a student at Princeton, unable to sleep with the sound and fury of death and destruction roiling through his brain. There he is at a table in a tiny room being grilled by an over-zealous prosecutor (Jason Clarke’s Roger Robb) at the behest of an “impartial” tribunal, unable to fully hear his words above the sensory overload of terror for what his science wrought. But none of that is present to earn sympathy from us or to prove an admission of guilt. It’s a deflection from what’s really going on. A reminder that intent is meaningless in the face of ambition.

Because the truth of what Nolan weaves through flashbacks sparked by the testimonies of both Oppenheimer and Strauss is that it’s all been a game. Those who believe themselves to be in control are merely puppets for the ones who are. The difference is that Oppenheimer acknowledges this fact. He knows Admiral Groves (Matt Damon) picked him because he was a liability. Because he had everything to lose and thus one hand perpetually tied behind his back. He may have been arrogant, but he wasn’t vain. Not like Strauss—a man so wrapped up in the strings he’s pulling that he forgets about the ones tightly affixed to his own wrists.

At three hours long, however, we aren’t able to fully grasp this notion until we’re already two-thirds of the way through thanks to “surprise” revelations that prove cuter than they do profound. Does shielding the real reason Nolan has chosen these mirrored “trials” add anything to the whole? No. The impact of what we watch beforehand doesn’t grow out of the reveal. Only the impact of what follows does. So, why not play it straight from the beginning? Why toy with the audience’s expectations? Because that which does follow pales in comparison to the rest. It serves to create a villain. And, in so doing, removes us from the weight of Oppenheimer’s grief to enjoy a romp of karmic “justice” instead.

Don’t get me wrong, though. Downey Jr. is absolutely fantastic and I love his more direct plot line to an eventual comeuppance. I’m just not sure it doesn’t take away from the potency of the more introspective and esoteric Prometheus tale at the film’s center. That’s why I must step back and view the whole as being about more than these men. To see Nolan’s goal as proving they were both pawns to a changing tide of bloodlust and tribalism wherein World War II became less about finding allies to fight for a common cause and more about aligning with enemies to cheat, steal, and cut loose once the bigger threat to both was defeated.

That’s where the communist angle comes in and why all those tertiary characters (including Florence Pugh drastically underused Jean Tatlock) must be introduced despite being throwaways who cannot earn the emotional gut-punch Nolan wishes they can. Jean, the Chevaliers, even Oppenheimer’s brother are pawns to his story like he’s a pawn to that of the United States’ demand for supremacy. It all becomes fodder for Roger Rob to wield as Ludwig Göransson’s score ramps up to climax. So much so that even the wonderful scene where he gets taken to task by Emily Blunt’s Kitty (an actor elevating another weakly written prop to almost feel real) becomes a victim to Nolan’s too-smart-for-his-own-good shell game.

Thankfully, despite my qualms with Nolan purposefully structuring things to exploit our belief he’s finally told a straightforward story, I was still completely taken by its gravitas. Give Murphy and Downey Jr. Oscars. Check my blood pressure after the latest PTSD-fueled flashback hits Oppenheimer while he attempts to be what is wanted of him even as he wishes to retreat. Bask in the narrative parallels by looking back to see where the manipulations were coming from even if the need to do so feels unnecessarily convoluted.

Much like my reaction to Paul Thomas’ Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, Oppenheimer is objectively a monumental work by an artist at the peak of his ability. I just prefer Nolan’s messier swings wherein heart and excitement trump his obvious technical prowess.

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Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer in OPPENHEIMER, written, produced, and directed by Christopher Nolan. Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon. © Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved.