Oppenheimer is a relentlessly beautiful Nolan film that is simply impossible to love.

On July 20, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's new film, was released worldwide.

The film is based on Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin's book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer". Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. Narcissistic intellectual, womanizer, communist - Oppenheimer's colleagues and politicians did not like him for his personal qualities, and pacifists - for his creation. It was the bombs developed by the scientist that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The events of the film develop in several time planes. In the first, Robert Oppenheimer is working on the creation of nuclear weapons, in the second, he is trying to stop the production of the hydrogen bomb and calls for an end to the Cold War.

Christopher Nolan single-handedly wrote and directed the film. For Oppenheimer, he selected a team from those with whom he had already worked: cameraman Hoite van Hoytema (Interstellar), editor Jennifer Leim (Tenet), composer Ludwig Goransson (Tenet).

The film stars Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Josh Hartnett, Benny Safdie, Gary Oldman and others.

Zero emotions

Oppenheimer is definitely the most emotionless film by Christopher Nolan. In Argument there was a terrible but understandable love line, Oppenheimer is deprived of that too. At the beginning of the film, it seems that here the main emotion will be despair, horror from what has been done, self-hatred, perhaps even megalomania. However, Nolan leads the viewer along the standard plot tropes and does not even offer to sympathize or empathize. This is such a dry film that sometimes it resembles a harsh documentary.

It is not surprising that the culmination of Oppenheimer is shifted, if not in the middle, then only slightly beyond the equator of the picture. For emotions, you need to go to Barbie.

Unrevealed main character

Throughout the film, viewers are shown a hero whom they are unlikely to be able to somehow characterize after watching. Robert Oppenheimer is the man who created nuclear weapon, and this is where his biography ends. At the beginning of the picture, he seems to be a mad scientist who is more interested in living in theories than in reality - a fairly familiar type. But then Nolan seems to mix morality and some human traits into it. What exactly is not clear.

Oppenheimer can be compared to The Imitation Game, where Benedict Cumberbatch appeared to be about the same scientist. But, unlike the character of Cillian Murphy, his character literally radiated genius and aroused much more interest.

If you have a desire to learn at least something about Oppenheimer, then Nolan will disappoint you - it’s more like a retelling of life events, but not personal qualities, and even more so thoughts and ideas. Either Oppenheimer is glad that he created a nuclear weapon, or he blames himself. Does he want to stop developing new types of weapons because he is worried about the world, or because someone will create a stronger bomb and become the main scientist, some kind of winner of an absentee dispute? And what about the Japanese who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, does he feel sorry for them? Or is their death just part of the job?

It may seem that Robert Oppenheimer is completely devoid of empathy, but in one scene he demonstrates the opposite. That is, the human is not alien to him, but Nolan seems to specifically refuse to show the human side of the hero. In one of the dialogues, Oppenheimer is told that he always wanted to appear more complex than he really was. Exactly the same claim can be made to the film.

Boring secondary characters

The situation is different for secondary characters. Most of them are simple function characters who announce themselves in their very first scene. General Groves is a seemingly evil military man who will interfere with Oppenheimer's normal work, but he is played Matt Damon, so it's easy to assume that there is kindness and a funny feeling behind the imaginary seriousness humor. A couple of scenes pass, and the prediction comes true - Damon rarely plays other characters.

Oppenheimer's wife is an alcoholic, and as a person she is limited to this, nothing more is known about her. Although she is played by the incredible Emily Blunt, whose talent is simply not being used.

Nothing is known about other heroes: about Oppenheimer's mistress, about his subordinates. And the throwing of official Lewis Strauss, which takes up an insane amount of screen time, says little about him, let alone the main character.

A huge ensemble of brilliant actors play the roles they are familiar with. Is that Gary Oldman in the image of Harry Truman looks interesting, but he literally has one scene.

Not only the characters turned out to be empty, but also their interactions. Why does Oppenheimer leave one woman and goes to another? There is not a single dialogue showing his spiritual intimacy with at least one person. He doesn't care about his wife, and she doesn't care about him? Is she drinking because of him or just like that? Does Oppenheimer have friends or are all his colleagues? Too many unanswered questions for a movie that is 3 hours long and has an insane amount of dialogue.

Technical Excellence

But if everything is sad with the filling of Oppenheimer, then the visuals are magnificent and diverse - the cameraman Hoite van Hoytema did an incomparable job, using just an infinite number of tricks. The portraits are somehow unearthly - it is not surprising that there are so many of them in the trailer.

Flames, bright lights, and other effects of the bomb explosion are shown throughout the film, sometimes even in dialogue. Jennifer Lame did her best here - Oppenheimer has an incredible editing that brings many gray scenes to life. Well, the sound is the best thing in the film. Nolan's latest paintings are made for IMAX, and IMAX is made for Nolan.

If we consider the film only as an audiovisual spectacle and do not pay attention to the narrative, then Oppenheimer is the main work of Christopher Nolan. But this makes it sadder, because everything else, well, does not quite reach the ingenious wrapper.

Already familiar late Nolan

There are enough people in the world who appreciate Nolan for "Remember" and "Insomnia", but reject all his next projects. Gigantomania, self-repetitions, pathos - the reasons are different. "Oppenheimer" shows what the late Nolan is like, as it consists of elements from past films. The thing is that from now on Christopher Nolan does not invent anything - he already knows how.

The protagonist is a genius scientist who thinks himself outside of his own time and space, much too reminiscent of McConaughey's character from "Interstellar». Science serves for him both as a way to live in society and as a kind of focus - as in The Prestige. And all this is immersed in technical developments that arose back in Interstellar, but were fully embodied in Dunkirk.

Once again, the director uses a non-linear narrative - following Memento, Argument and, to some extent, Interstellar and Prestige, where the finale turns all events around.

Once again, Nolan has terrible female heroes - it seems that after Memento (filmed from the book by Jonathan Nolan) there were simply no interesting women in his films. The wife of the protagonist is an alcoholic, one mistress is a psychopath, and the other is just a blonde - nothing more is known about them. And it's sad.

"Oppenheimer" is a classic example of a film that should be watched strictly in the cinema, and even better in IMAX. When the story gets too bland, the brilliant sound and wonderful editing is a real treat. But if you wanted to know who Robert Oppenheimer is and what he was thinking when creating the most terrible weapon in the history of mankind, then Nolan's film will not help you. Nolan is interested in something else - to understand what it is.