Review of Oppenheimer

The fact that it's been several weeks between seeing the film and writing a review says something. I know it's an important subject and that it's seen as an important film, but despite the length (3 hours) I was a bit underwhelmed. Visually it felt a bit trite. And I've often liked Christopher Nolan's films for complex narrative structures, but this one felt ponderous and contrived rather than interestingly complex. 

I thought I knew the story of Los Alamos, and I wasn't aware of any major surprises as I watched the film. It felt to me like the conflict with Lewis Strauss, which I didn't know about, was the dramatic centre of the film...I think I'd rather that it hadn't been so long and convoluted, and that it had focused on that more. The claustrophobic scenes of the private hearing that more or less finished Oppenheimer as a public figure, because his security clearance was not renewed, are really well done.

Despite the length of the film the tension between Oppenheimer and Strauss doesn't really feel well explained - was it really because Oppenheimer said something that made Strauss feel humiliated at a Congressional hearing of some kind? Was there really nothing more to it than that?

Watched at the Vue in Stroud with two good friends and an extra large popcorn.