It's the sound of Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer that will stay with you. The frenetic sound of stomping feet. The wind whipping the sheets on a clothesline. The subliminal yet pervasive sound of a train chugging along apace, the momentum building to a crescendo of light and fury.
In 1945, with the detonation of Trinity in the sands of New Mexico's Alamogordo, the deathtrain left the station, never to return.
Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his fellow scientists at Los Alamos are the bringers of death to others, to end the death of their own. They may claim they had no idea of the final intent behind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan, but the denial falls flat in the face of the speed and massive budget put behind the atomic bomb project.
As "Oppie" Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy was given the opportunity to portray a man both revered and reviled by history. And he embraced the role with almost no facial expressions, never giving away the turmoil which he may have felt, always leaning into the science and not the politics of his assignment.
Emily Blunt is astounding as Oppie's wife, biologist and botanist Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer., breathing life into a role and a person who is generally unknown. With no discernable parenting skills, leaving her toddler to cry incessantly, turning over the child to friends to raise, stating "the brat is down, where's my martini", she has little patience for anyone or anything not willing to show some backbone, including her own husband.
Oppenheimer is simultaneously two stories about one man. The scientist who brought the atomic bomb to life and was celebrated, and the man who spent his life disavowing communism yet had that label attached to him when he refused to participate in furthering the destruction of the world.
Oppenheimer is bursting at the seams with starpower including Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh and Robert Downey, Jr.
You may think you know the story behind the story. The film itself is one you simply cannot miss.
Lisa Blanck is the Associate Editor and Movie Reviewer for In Focus-Magazine.com. Her background includes 30+ years of digital editing for WESH2 News and WKMG News. She also edits on-air promotional spots for Matter Of Fact, the number one nationally syndicated news and information program. For more than 30 years she has covered the Florida Film Festival and the World Peace Film Festival, with additional experience in advertising, marketing, promotions and live special events at MTV Networks. She was previously a columnist for the Focus In Newspaper. 
Tell friend
