Thanks to its mostly brilliant acting and the way that its story moves thrillingly and fast with a well machinated and playful structure of the events in the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the way it is presented via image and sound, this 3-hour movie moves along quickly and engagingly without stalling at any time. With the exception of some underdeveloped characters and plotlines and a rather heavy make-up, all other departments and elements are perfectly executed.

From up-and-coming but already renowned theoretical quantum physicist to defenestrated individual by the US administration for his world views, passing through his involvement in the design of the both most destructive and most decisive weapon in contemporary history, this film takes a look at the inner moral conflicts as well as external conflicts driven by political power-play that J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) went through throughout his life due to becoming Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.

The first easy noticeable element to refer to is its extensive cast. For sure Cillian Murphy is above any other, being present on the screen practically for the entirety of the film. He is stupendous in encapsulating the progressive deterioration of this initially idealistic, positive and romantic man towards becoming a cold, pragmatic and depressed individual as he sees the awful ramifications of his own work. The only person that dares to come slightly closer to Murphy’s work, at the very least when it comes to plot prominence, is Robert Downey Jr. in his great portrayal of the self-interested, ruthless and greedy of power Lewis Strauss. Strauss is the perfect counterpart to Oppenheimer, while the latter goes through a path of self-redemption, the former does not show any apparent regret of remorse on his selfish actions.

Surrounding these two, we have a star-studded cast playing the rest of the parts (which range from slightly bigger to simple cameos). Although most of them show great skill in their performances, such as David Krumholtz, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett and specially Emily Blunt, it is also true that some performances feel rather bland. Those basically being Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves and Rami Malek as David L. Hill, who seem to show no particular effort on the roles they have been commanded to perform acting and having the same presence that they may show in many of their other acting parts with no particular quirks or distinctive elements.

In order to encapsulate this huge array of characters, inventive and original writing and storytelling techniques are more than required, but this precisely something which is not unfamiliar to Christopher Nolan and fortunately this is something that he delivers with ease. Although on paper, the structure of the film might seem a bit complex, as it is with many Nolan films, the truth is that the transitions and cuts throughout the lifetime of Oppenheimer and the overall timeline of the film are quite easy to digest and follow once you get quickly swallowed into the story. In any case, the choice of supporting this aspect by differentiating the Oppenheimer-centric with the Strauss-centric point of view by using colour for Oppenheimer and black-and-white for Strauss makes this even more comfortable to understand, as it allows for even to most casual cinema-goers to easily switch mental focus while watching the film.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the story of the main protagonist, we can’t escape but feeling that his family and “love” struggles could have been more explored as its extra-marital affairs and womanising nature might have shown even more clearly the indecisive and doubtful nature of his mind. At the same time, this would have put into more prominence the part of Kitty Oppenheimer played by Emily Blunt. As previously mentioned, her performance is so immaculate that it is a bit of a shame that she is not more heavily featured in the film.

Another element that is somewhat distracting is the too exaggerated make-up and hairstyle work. Especially, but not exclusively, for the characters of both J. Robert Oppenheimer and Kitty Oppenheimer becoming increasingly noticeable as they grow old. Undisputedly this will always be a better and more natural choice than the one of CGI that many other filmmakers have decided to pursue as of late with quite disappointing results. Unfortunately, and it might just be because of the multiple looks that the characters have to display in various moments of their lives, it feels like a too much over-the-top theatrical parade of too much forcefully different physiognomies and hairstyles.

But besides this element, the rest of technical departments feel absolutely on point. Most of the people will look into the most easily perceptible visual elements of photography combined with the special effects, but it is also worth of praise the great work in the sound department. Let’s get rid of the obvious first, Ludwig Göransson’s score which both because of length and form (barely stopping throughout the film) could be consider more a full concerto rather than a traditional movie score is stellar. But, it is also worth-mentioning the overall sound editing and mixing in the film which enhances to a superior level the images of Los Alamos, the post-war traumatic close-ups of Oppenheimer, as well as the explosion scene so spot-on defined as a thing that “hardens heart”.

All in all, this is undoubtedly a great filmmaking achievement as it manages to recover the feel of a lost genre which is that of the true epic. Epic in scale, epic in message, epic in delivery. The film manages to check many of the boxes with a perfect score and although it is true that the choices in some departments might be considered slightly shaky, or at the very least debatable, it does not take away the courage required to undertake such an endeavour together with the masterful skill that it is needed to make a movie of this calibre enticing intellectually and emotionally in equal parts while also maintaining it highly entertaining throughout its entire runtime.