‘Oppenheimer’ is a Masterpiece That Allows Us to Think

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Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – With “Oppenheimer,” director Christopher Nolan reminds us of what a blockbuster can be. They need not all be brain dead exercises in grunting and effects. Instead he delivers a thoughtful film that manages to synthesize complex elements like quantum physics into a piece of cinematic entertainment that just might be his most profound film yet. 


“Oppenheimer” is a movie about a man who profoundly changed the world forever, and then tried to put the nuclear genie back into the bottle, or at least contain it. “Peaky Blinders” star Cillian Murphy stars as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. He’s a college professor who is intrigued, even tormented, by a relentless drive to understand how the world works, and the questions of matter, molecules and atoms.

Oppenheimer
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Murphy becomes Oppenheimer by eschewing actorly tics, and instead gives us an internal performance that commands the screen. The look in his eyes suggests a raging storm of his thought processes while Nolan provides some inventive cinematic touches that make those thoughts something we can see, hear and feel right there in the theater.

“Oppy” is most comfortable in the world of academia and theory, and begins to make a name for himself at Berkeley. Then he comes to the attention of gruff General Leslie Graves (Matt Damon) who asks him to head up the U.S. government’s Manhattan Project during World War II. The film doesn’t downplay Oppenheimer’s leftward leanings, or his dalliances with the Communist Party. He knows the consequences of the power he is about to unleash, but he is a man who sees the risks of inaction as far greater than the risks of taking action.

Nolan manages to tell us the story of Oppenheimer’s rise and fall, while at the same time filtering it through hearings at different points in time, first in a hearing on Oppenheimer’s security clearance, and secondly through Senate confirmation hearings of Oppenheimer’s one time frenemy Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr), who as a director of the Atomic Commission is pushing for more bombs, not less.

Cillian Murphy is ‘Oppenheimer’
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

The acting is superb all around, with Emily Blunt making the most of her role as Oppenheimer’s wife, beginning the film as the frustrated mother stuck with crying babies, and then transforming into the spine Oppenheimer needs when he’s under attack. But it’s Robert Downey Jr who gives a truly revelatory performance, which reminds us of what a good actor he is … after more than a decade playing Iron Man). He sinks his teeth into the role and finds the little man inside, trying to play angles to outwit the scientific genius known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb.

The multiple storylines allows Nolan to tell a more complete story by coming at it from all different angles …without ever losing sight of the man at the center. “Oppenheimer” is entertainment with a lot on its mind, willing to engage in tough questions and leave the audience with plenty to think about.

By SPIKE WALTERS Contributor HollywoodChicago.com spike@hollywoodchicago.com