The story of J Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project – the top scientists who developed the atom bomb that ended the Second World War and started the Cold War - is hardly a new one. Oppenheimer himself was the subject of at least two previous movies.
But it was never told like this.
Christopher Nolan has set out to tell the story of physicist Oppenheimer – not just his wartime experiences but the subsequent events that sullied his reputation – from his own perspective.
Photo: Universal Pictures
We see the world as he’d see it – a world of turmoil, of atoms colliding, of light, electricity and potential cataclysmic destruction.
And Oppenheimer wouldn’t be a Nolan film if it didn’t muck about with timelines. You can’t say you weren’t warned though.
He sets up two hypotheses at the start – one called Fission, the other Fusion – even if, typically, he doesn’t explain what he means.
Let me assist Nolan acolytes by saying they seem to be linked to two timelines - one covering events leading up to the atom bomb dropped on Japan in 1945.
The other is ten years later, at the height of the notorious Communist scare in the United States, when Oppenheimer finds himself uncomfortably on the wrong side of history.
There’s a lot to unpack, and Nolan isn’t one to oversimplify. Oppenheimer – a very good Cillian Murphy – was a gifted physicist, one of the few Americans to understand and promote a brand-new theory, Quantum Mechanics.
He also, like many American intellectuals in the 1930s, dabbled briefly with communism, though he was too smart – and arrogant - to be wedded to politics of any stripe. Until politics was forced on him.
The war made neutrality inconceivable to Oppenheimer, who was Jewish – like most of the top physicists of the time, we’re told.
And physicists on both sides were ordered to build the still-theoretical atomic super-bomb.
The job of putting together a team of America’s top scientists under Oppenheimer falls to a military man, General Groves - Matt Damon in another terrific performance.
His task is made harder because the qualities that make a great scientist are rarely teamwork or unquestioning respect for authority.
Quantum physics, international politics in two conflicting eras - Nolan, as always, tackles big issues and requires us to pay attention.
And the way he keeps audiences on track is often through one of the simplest and least subtle techniques in the movies – old-fashioned star-power.
For example, when a young Oppenheimer goes to a party and runs into Florence Pugh in a seemingly small, unimportant role, we know to keep an eye out for her later.
The same when Robert Downey Junior meets him at a University gathering, wearing unflattering glasses and a wig that screams “ambitious 50s Republican”.
And keeping the two timelines separate – before and after the War – requires a cunning use of colour and monochrome, and some dazzling non-digital special effects, both sound and vision.
During the war, Oppenheimer is not only struggling to perfect the bomb before Hitler gets his hands on it, he’s also fighting a Government who are determined to keep it from their nominal allies the Russians.
After the war, Oppenheimer – now an opponent of any escalation of nuclear weapons - runs into implacable hostility from right-wing politicians, led by Senator Lewis Strauss – Robert Downey Junior.
By the early Fifties even a sniff of anti-nuclear sentiment is shorthand for treason. From being the hero of the war, Oppenheimer is in danger of disgrace.
Of course, watching Oppenheimer, we have the benefit of hindsight, even if most of us aren’t over-familiar with the details.
We can watch the countdown to the first explosion with rather more confidence than the people about to press the button.
And similarly, when Oppenheimer and his friends are being hounded by Strauss, Senator Joe McCarthy and the rest, we have a pretty good idea how it’ll come out.
Who are you likely to go with – Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein or Downey Junior and his Republican hairdo?
With so many characters to keep up with, Nolan’s intelligent use of stars like Emily Blunt, Kenneth Branagh, Downey, Damon and in a neat little turn, Tom Conti as Einstein makes sure we stay this side of getting lost.
That can sometimes be difficult when you’re dealing with people like this. At least half a dozen characters in Oppenheimer are geniuses or near geniuses.
Murphy certainly has the most riding on his shoulders, playing the hard-to-know Oppenheimer – gifted scientist, womanizing dilettante, with a noticeably flexible conscience.
But he’s often shown at his best advantage against less conflicted characters – like Blunt as his no-nonsense wife, and Damon as his exasperated boss.
There’s a telling moment when after the war Oppenheimer meets President Truman and shares his doubts about the bomb. Truman is contemptuous, later calling him a crybaby.
Is that true? It feels true. And one of Oppenheimer’s themes is the division of power in the world, between the gifted and the limited people in charge of them.
Is there a message here about the film industry? The talented visionaries dependent on greedy opportunists? Maybe so, but the good news is, with two great films, Oppenheimer and Barbie, in our cinemas this week that sometimes – even if it’s just for a week or so – the talented people come out on top.
