The movie takes a reasonably interesting look at Oppenheimers life and work. It uses the most part of its 3 hours runtime focusing around two periods of Oppenheimers life: the time in Los Alamos and the time around the hearing for the renewal of his security clearance. The latter one is the anchor from which the movie jumps around the other timeframes.
While the movie gives an ok view of Oppenheimer on the outside, it never gets into his head. Instead, it keeps his thoughts and motives a mystery. This is done by design, it's not an oversight. For me, this is the film's greatest flaw. The events and people around Oppenheimer are known and can be read and watched from many sources. His inner workings are never part of that, so an examination, even if it was a kind of best approximation, would be something new.
However, it is not the films only flaw. It feels jumpy in it's movement between the timelines, and the methods to keep them apart for the viewer seem somewhat crude. Then there is the director's play with sound volume that really got on my nerves. Nolan started this around Interstellar and Dunkirk and adopted it as a signature style element of his. For me, it's an attack on the ears and way too loud in a good theater.
Then there is the smaller stuff. Oppenheimer's surroundings and times were filled with great minds, some of which appear for longer or shorter screentime. Sadly, all of the stay cardboard cutouts with no depth at all. The deserved more.
So yeah, the movie's a bit meh. It's not a bad movie, all considered, but it's also far from good. And maybe a movie is not the right format for the subject. There was just too much going on in that time and too many people of importance involved in the events. I think a limited series, maybe 6 parts of an hour or so would have been a better idea.
Watch it anyway. It's too important not to.
While the movie gives an ok view of Oppenheimer on the outside, it never gets into his head. Instead, it keeps his thoughts and motives a mystery. This is done by design, it's not an oversight. For me, this is the film's greatest flaw. The events and people around Oppenheimer are known and can be read and watched from many sources. His inner workings are never part of that, so an examination, even if it was a kind of best approximation, would be something new.
However, it is not the films only flaw. It feels jumpy in it's movement between the timelines, and the methods to keep them apart for the viewer seem somewhat crude. Then there is the director's play with sound volume that really got on my nerves. Nolan started this around Interstellar and Dunkirk and adopted it as a signature style element of his. For me, it's an attack on the ears and way too loud in a good theater.
Then there is the smaller stuff. Oppenheimer's surroundings and times were filled with great minds, some of which appear for longer or shorter screentime. Sadly, all of the stay cardboard cutouts with no depth at all. The deserved more.
So yeah, the movie's a bit meh. It's not a bad movie, all considered, but it's also far from good. And maybe a movie is not the right format for the subject. There was just too much going on in that time and too many people of importance involved in the events. I think a limited series, maybe 6 parts of an hour or so would have been a better idea.
Watch it anyway. It's too important not to.