I was watching this long film and thinking 'this is too long, it could do with some cutting' but actually most of it is in there for a reason and for the ending. Perhaps the story involving the Florence Pugh character (I didn't even recognise her) is redundant, doesn't really add anything.
There are a lot of characters. Cillian Murphy is the Oscar-winning lead and Robert Downey almost unrecognisable as his seeming friend but adversary. Emily Blunt was nominated. (Loved her scene where she's up against the prosecutor).
With Matt Damon, David Krumholtz (unrecognisable as the Jewish physicist) Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek, Nenny Safdie, Alden Ehrenreich, Tom Conti (as Einstein), Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, Jason Clarke (the prosecutor), Matthew Modine.
I was surprised the scientists didn't discuss the radiation fall-out; and that the film shied away from the radiation victims. Also, what the fuck was that about the poisoned apple?
Technically Jennifer Lame does a wonderful job of keeping the bits all in play together and won her first Oscar; Hoyte van Hoytema won his first. The two I thought would definitely win were for make-up and sound, but both were only nominated: Luisa Abel and Burton / King / Rizzo / O'Connell respectively. (Poor Things and The Zone of Interest won those categories). The other three were for Nolan as director, Ludwig Goransson for music, and Best Film.
Lame normally is very negative about every film she works on , thinks it's going to turn out terribly; but on this one she actually thought it was good while in progress. Having edited Manchester by the Sea she became very excited in the Affleck-Murphy scene, relishing the performances: the more scary Affleck becomes the more Murphy flounders.
The stand out moments are when the test bomb goes off but we don't hear the sound of the explosion; then when Oppenheimer congratulates the team but experiences blinding light and bodies disintegrating. The sound is very creative too: the repeated use of feet stamping on the podium, or the welter of questions the prosecutor throws at Oppenheimer.
The last sequence by the lake is great. Fortunately, Oppenheimer isn't a really BIG film, you know, like The Red Shoes or something, and so it doesn't wipe you out, which is how we stumbled into our second accidental Einstein movie, in which Walter Matthau is perfectly cast as the scientist. I have to be honest though about the screenplay from Monk's creator Andy Breckman and Michael Leeson: really only the first third works really well; then all the stuff about the cold fusion engine is a bit of nonsense. Enjoyable professors, though!
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