The first nuclear bomb, if successful when tested, would unleash a force so powerful, so chaotically monstrous as to have a 99% (theoretical) chance of destroying the world. No absolutes existed, it was all theoretical. Until it wasn't.
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Such a realization surfaces almost accidentally during a pivotal conversation between scientist and army leader coming as it does just days before the first atomic bomb test counts down...3.2.1...
And it is the genius direction of Christopher Nolen who makes complex and mind-twisting scientific, mathematical and nuclear concepts and language (such as the one mentioned above) seem accidentally 'discovered', conversational and common-place dialogue among the brilliant minds and thinkers of their age who worked on creating the first atom bomb in the Los Alamos desert where, for the film, the Manhattan Project was re-created to perfection.
Springing from a working script resonate with absolute conviction, intellectual aggressiveness, competitiveness, haunting and frustrating failures all passionately extolled by the acting ensemble who portrayed those minds, making incredibly difficult math and science formulas and discourse, compelling and often, riveting.
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The sheer audacity of Nolan's multi layered story telling is almost too much to take in, but the magic is strong with this auteur, engrossing his audience in the weft and warp of the political, social and geopolitical tensions of the day...a world war, a relentless Japan, the specter of Hitler having an atomic bomb before the Allies and the rise of Communism. Threading in and out are the private lives of these historic characters, inter-meshing and spilling over into the wider story about making a bomb, a bomb that may destroy the world.
Cillian Murphy inhabits J Robert Oppenheimer, the architect-in-chief of the Manhattan project and is transformative in this role: It's 'boots'n'all' for this actor in this role. The same can be said for every actor, in every role. Fully committed. Fully immersed.
This is a big film, tackling a big story, which for me, is also....almost....the film's undoing, teetering as it does on the 3 hour mark sans interval.
In lesser hands/minds/talents/intellectual prowess and filmmaking excellence, Oppenheimer the film would have been a different sort of 'bomb' to the one Oppenheimer the Scientist was instrumental in bringing into existence.
