Oppenheimer Review
Hopefully trying to be as spoiler free as possible.
After sleeping on it, I think I pretty much had my definitive opinion on the film last night. I think that there are some performances that definitely stand out. Cillian Murphy in the titular role that is J. Robert Oppenheimer was absolutely immaculate. I felt the full range of emotion and struggle that Oppenheimer went through thanks to his performance. All the moments of doubt and struggle definitely made me think about my choices if I was in Oppenheimer's shoes. Robert Downey Jr. portrayed Lewis Strauss magnificently. I really grew to hate the character which is a testament to Downey's acting. By the end of the film I wanted to grab the guy and punch him in the face. Trying to avoid spoilers for non history buffs/people who still want to see it. Matt Damon as Leslie Groves gave me a loveable Matt Damon performance. I can't really hate Damon. I think he did a fantastic job and the delivery of his lines probably made me chuckle the most throughout the movie. Josh Hartnett as Ernest Lawrence was a surprise to me. First off I was trying to figure out who the heck this guy was since his face was so familiar to me. Didn't want to disturb others by checking my phone during the movie. I was very taken in by his performance. It was a very good support character. Maybe others will feel he's just there but I kind of liked him. Speaking of support characters I really liked David Krumholtz as Isidor. I think it's cause I can totally relate to being the supporting friend in my actual life.
Now seems like a good part to breakup my thoughts on performances. The women. My initial thoughts after seeing movie last night were very meh. I didn't realize it was Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh as the two main female leads so to speak. Last night as I was reflecting on it, I didn't really care for Blunt's performance. Now I think it was a case where she did the best she could with the role she was given. I think she did a good job as Katherine. In the beginning I was kind of meh on her because of the way the character was initially presented to viewers but towards the end she became one of the best. I had no idea it was Florence Pugh. Then again I probably haven't seen much of her work so it was just a meh to me. I did not like her character at all. Spoilers sure boobs are nice to see, I think we need more boobs in movies nowadays. But, it just didn't do anything for me. Maybe because it was meant to be some raw emotional scenes involving Pugh's character with Oppenheimer. To me it was just unnecessary and kind of turned me off. As I sat watching, I'm like oh here's the cliche scenes. Can this be over? What does this have to do with the plot? Get a move on. Right now I'm still kind of iffy on Pugh but perhaps it's more of my dislike of the way the character was written. Didn't really care for that character.
The cinematography was well done. The way the movie was presented was fantastic. Eventually you pick up on when events happen in the timeline. No musical soundtrack but the sound effects were good enough. No glaring crazy bad CGI, I don't think they had to do much of that for this movie. As for Nolan's performance as a director. I kind of thought it was a bit below the usual mind blowing films I expect from him. Maybe it's because I knew a decent chunk of the story behind Oppenhiemer and the Manhattan Project from Physics back in high school (for some reason we got sidetracked into a history lesson). So it's not like there was any crazy twist or surprise that would've gotten me. But the movie kind of just ends abruptly with a philosophical question that's dumped on the viewer. It definitely didn't hit me as hard because that's the stuff I kind of think about and go down very deep rabbit holes over. But for the average person I think it will make them think.
Overall I'd say it's an 8 out of 10.
