Oppenheimer

 

This week film release featured two highly anticipated movies, collectively called 'Barbenheimer', on the same day.  Given the three-hour runtime of writer-director Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and not wanting to spend at least 6 hours at the movie theater I opted to see Oppenheimer, first.

There’s not a lot to say about Oppenheimer, so this will be short and sweet.

This is a Christopher Nolan film through and through.  

Meaning you have a stellar all-star cast from top to bottom, acting their butts off as you exclaim, “damn, that’s so and so”! Yet. You’re still shocked when you watch the credits and see how many folks you missed. Gary Oldman?! Yep.  

The direction, visuals, and cinematography are stunning. Soundtrack sweeping. The characters well developed and engaging.  

Also, like a number of Nolan’s films, the epic nature comes with some pacing issues and gets a tad boring.  While not completely awful, there are definitely areas where the film feels a bit tedious. One gentleman sitting next to me did doze off a couple of times (he made a point of mentioning it to me after the movie) and I don’t think it was entirely due to the hot temperatures or his age.  

A couple of unexpected points.  First, while the film is called Oppenheimer and is billed as the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb, it’s almost a secondary feature consequence of the film.  The politics is the primary driving force.  Interesting overall, but the heavy focus was somewhat disappointing as I went in expecting/wanting to learn more about the person and the project.

Second, the audio. The audio editing is on par with Dunkirk and effective, but damn it’s unbelievably and at times uncomfortably loud. I’m talking, the lady sitting next to me who was deaf in one ear and wore a hearing aid in the other (she told me this as she asked me if I found the movie loud), took her hearing aid out and still put her finger in her ear to muffle the sound loud. According to second had reports from other viewers it wasn’t just the screening I attended.  So, consider yourself warned.

Oppenheimer gets a 8.5 from me.