Let’s make a bomb.
In my endless quest for hatemail I have decided to watch the Oscar nominated films. Let’s take a look at Christopher Nolan’s film about Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer is an incredibly complex figure, and his involvement with the development of the atomic bomb has given him an infamous legacy. His life, and the creation of the bomb are major focuses of this film. Cillian Murphy does an excellent job showing the inner turmoil of the man as he recounts his life before a security committee. We see a younger Robert flirt with ideas of communism, which is the major crux of the committee’s front-facing concerns.
You see, there is a parallel story of Lewis Strauss (played perfectly by Robert Downey Jr.), who has a beef with Oppenheimer due to the scientist’s behavior, attitude, and so forth. How these stories coalesce is a fascinating journey where the stakes continue to rise and rise.
So much of this film is great. Oppenheimer’s interactions with other scientists, the development of the bomb, and the nail-biting trinity sequence are all top tier. In many ways, I think this is Nolan’s best film. The film also proves Robert Downey Jr. is one of the best actors in the business.
However, you’ve probably already read a dozen or so reviews praising this movie. When it works, it works. There is a lot to love here and it does deserve a lot of the praise it was given.
Yet, the film completely fails its women characters.
Oppenheimer’s affair with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) is meant to be a major point of the movie. Sure, the fact that she was involved with the Communist Party is brought up, but Nolan opted to instead just use Pugh for what might be the worst sex scenes in cinema. I mean, these make The Room look artistic.
The cringey and awkward scenes must have been made with the idea that the audience should feel as though they are watching a pornography of their parents… with their parents! I know that joke was in bad taste, but so are these scenes. Pugh is barely given any lines, was apparently told to just be moody and is a complete waste in the film. Shame on Nolan for doing this to such a great actress.
Perhaps even worse is the treatment of Kitty Oppenheimer (Emily Blunt), who is only allowed to be an alcoholic. I don’t think there are more than two scenes where we don’t show her drinking or know that she has been drinking. It is so funny that Nolan trusts his audiences to keep up with basic physics (basic in what is presented to the audience) but assumes we’re all too dumb to remember Kitty had a drinking problem.
There is an accidentally hilarious moment towards the end when Robert says he and Kitty “Have walked through fire together”–nope. The film did nothing to earn this line and we have only seen her drink and him philander about. In better hands, the tragedy of Kitty being left alone while Robert gets to have all the fun could have been powerful.
As much as I want to like this movie, it simply does a piss poor job with many of its characters. The Strauss arc works so much better because we aren’t constantly jutting against these major issues. I don’t think Nolan has ever been great at writing women, but he has never been worse here. I think Blunt and Pugh should be pissed, and they might be, but they’re also professionals, so we won’t ever know.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Nolan. I think he gets too far up his own butt when making his movies and needs an editor. I’ve never thought he failed his characters immensely before though.
Did it deserve the best picture? I’m not sure. Honestly, thus far it probably does, but we’ll see in the end.
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