Review: Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer is the story of the man behind the atom bomb, who ended the World War II and started the Cold War. Written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), it stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Junior and Matt Damon.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. 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…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details