Oppenheimer review – Don’t go and see it with Barbie, but do see it in IMAX

Now that the opening weekend hysteria is over, let’s be clear – Barbie and Oppenheimer are both fantastic movies but seeing them as a double bill (in whichever order) makes no sense.

And no, there is no need to feel that one or the other is more suited to you. This is the modern day, we are all capable of enjoying many different things. Besides, (don’t tell anyone) both movies are actually about existential crises at their hearts. Yes, you read that right.

Both are undeniably incredible but you should enjoy them separately because each will linger with you long after you leave the cinema and you’ll want to savour it.

And yes, try and see Oppenheimer on an IMAX screen if you can, because director Christopher Nolan shot the movie for that uniquely immersive format and not an inch of the screen is wasted. 

I saw it at a public screening. All ages and all demographics, and not a single empty seat. We sat in silent reverie for three hours and then spontaneously applauded at the end.

Actually, one last tip for Oppenheimer… I was a little slow on the uptake at first, but the reason some of the film is in black and white is that these scenes are set in J Robert Oppenheimer’s ‘present day” in 1954, when he was undergoing a politically motivated government investigation.

The colour scenes are everything set before that, which is directly ‘coloured’ by his own subjective memory as he testifies and looks back on his life. These flashbacks are almost too perfect, Oppenheimer attributing everyone with glittering dialogue and diamond-sharp delivery.

Whatever the tint on screen, the parallel stories are gripping, beautifully scripted and exquisitely filmed. 

The cast is flawless, headed by a sensational Cillian Murphy in the title role (awards glory seems assured), Emily Blunt superb as his troubled wife Kitty and Florence Pugh as his even more troubled lover Jean Tatlock. Robert Downey Jr plays slippery politician Lewis Strauss, Matt Damon is military chief Lewis Groves, Tom Conti pops up as Einstein and the entire supporting cast is so ludicrously star-studded the likes of Rami Malek and Gary Oldman have scene-stealing cameos.

Oppenheimer remains known as the man who gave the world (specifically the US military) the atomic bomb that conclusively ended World War II by forcing the Japanese surrender. It also started the nuclear arms race.

Lauded in the US as the hero who “brought our boys home” he was already wracked with the fear that he was become Shiva, “Destroyer of worlds.” Parallels in the film are also drawn with Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods to give to mankind, and was tortured for eternity as punishment.

On-screen, the visceral and intellectual thrill of world-changing discoveries races us through Oppenheimer’s youth and introduction to the heady world of American academia, where parties, wife-stealing, and liberal and communist activism abound.

He is soon snapped up to head the Manhattan Project, which would ultimately cost $2billion, including building an entire town in New Mexico, Los Alamos, and stuffing it with some of the world’s greatest minds to beat the Soviets and Nazis in the race to develop atomic weapons.

Like all great minds, he wasn’t always tolerant of those less able than himself, or (to his ultimate detriment) aware enough of politics and human ambitions and frailties. 

Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema alternate between stark close-ups of faces, swirling golden images of atoms and sumptuous big screen panoramas as they pull us in and out of ideas, emotions and occasionally spectacular action. They expand to the profound and shrink to the most intimately personal. It is stunning to watch.

The build-up to the first atomic bomb tests is almost unbearably tense and disturbingly beautiful. The bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima are never shown, but hang over the entire three hours.

This is a powerful story of science and war, human achievement and human destructiveness, but it is the human relationships, betrayals, losses and loyalties that make the film come alive.

It is history made myth and then deconstructed, humanity laid bare. The film is thrilling and thoughtful, beautifully crafted, and always gripping.

In a year of box office flops, this is true cinema writ large, with ideas as big as the action and must be seen on the biggest screen possible.

OPPENHEIMER IS OUT NOW IN IMAX CINEMAS