Dense and spectacular – and not pink: Oppenheimer reviewed

Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant quantum physicist and ‘father of the atomic bomb’ who was later haunted by what he’d created. Starring Cillian Murphy, and his cheekbones, the film is dense, ambitious, complex, so very long (three hours) and impressive, even if it does drag by the end. (When a film is so very long, that’s the price you pay.) I could go on and on but, for many, the main selling point will be this: it isn’t Barbie and it isn’t pink.

If that’s all the thanks you get for developing the next generation of weapon, I’m glad I never bothered

It’s a Nolan film so, of course, it’s not chronological storytelling. I pity his wife. I bet he can’t even go to the shops without recounting his journey in splintered fragments she’ll have to piece together. (‘Chris, please just start at the beginning…’) It is jumpy and agitated and hops around several timelines, with no dates or context given, which is a headache.