Oppenheimer (2023)

Christopher Nolan's biopic about the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was nicknamed "The Father of the Atomic Bomb", is a stunning film that has received wildly positive reviews on IMDb, where the score at the time of writing is 9.0 (as high as Nolan's own "The Dark Knight"), as well as Rotten Tomatoes, where both critics and audiences are at 94%. However, I will allow myself to add a drop of poison to the cup, stating that with a runtime of three hours Nolan's movie isn't just a bit long, but too long. I think that it would have been even better if the frame story, which ends up stealing attention from the main plot, had been an hour shorter.

The main plot is of course the story of the development of the doomsday weapon, which since 1945 and probably forever hangs like the sword of Damocles over everyone's heads. We follow Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) professionally and privately, who as a young professor meets fellow quantum physicists Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, befriends communist party members and later is hired by the military, achieves world fame with the bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and realizes what kind of monster he has created.

The frame story is about a McCarthy era hearing that ends with Oppenheimer being stripped of the security clearance that the military gave him during the war when he became chief of the Manhattan Project. As I said, it is too long, and in my opinion it is really a pity that this excellent film ends with time-consuming political tug-of-war and talk, talk, talk about whether Oppenheimer was a communist or not. His demotion could have simply been mentioned with a closing title, which would also have told us that he was rehabilitated in 1963 under John F. Kennedy.

But this faux pas at least gives Robert Downey Jr. a chance for a supporting actor Oscar nomination for his outstanding performance as Lewis Strauss, the head of the Atomic Energy Commission, who for personal reasons wanted to bring Oppenheimer down. There is generally a lot of Academy Award material in this movie, for which I predict nominations in almost all categories. Murphy definitely deserves a golden statue for his confident portrayal of Oppenheimer, and Emily Blunt should also be honored for her performance as the physicist's wife Kitty. Standing in line are also the ubiquitous Florence Pugh (as Oppenheimer's lover) and Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, Jason Clarke, Rami Malek, Matthew Modine, Dane DeHaan and many other stars. Editing, cinematography as well as soundtrack are also of the highest quality. This time Nolan has certainly created a grand movie.