After the convoluted sci-fi concoction Tenet, which strove so hard to wow and lost track of its own logic in the process, Nolan returns to safer shores with a real-life story with actual science that's more awe-inspiring and terrifying than anything that he's devised as fiction. Hence, the creation of the first atomic bomb by J. Robert Oppenheimer, both the fruit of his labours, the means to end WWII with the click of a switch and something that comes to torment him when the dust clouds have cleared and he finally realises what he's done, up to that point lost in the fog of his creative frenzy: enabled the amoral U.S. Government to not only kill multitudes of civilians clinically but to start yet another war immediately after that.
Cillian Murphy is perfect in the role, consistently opaque, intellectually supercilious and racked with visions of what has been and what might come. Yes, the science has to be patiently explained to the lay audience and the visionary protagonist, while not openly ostracised or quite autistic, is still detached from the mass of humanity (see A Beautiful Mind, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game) and the determination to go through every step of the process with all the players involved, particularly the kangaroo court the authorities set up against to discredit him once he's outlived his usefulness, leads to an unwieldy 3-hour running time. But even after that wait, the bomb comes with shocking dramatic force. Some critics have, of course, complained about the effects at ground zero in Japan not being shown, but that is quite irrelevant. We already know everything, and this is a film for adults.
8/10
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