The movie’s nonlinear story telling is the worst part of the film. Oppenheimer’s security clearance hearing was a good place to anchor the movie, but it did not even attempt to set up its antagonist until the last quarter of the movie. Why should it have been a ah-ha moment that Strauss was against Oppenheimer. A better editor would have more effectively placed all of the scenes into a coherent narrative.
The sex scene was just bad. “Christopher, how do intelligent people have sex?” “Well, they can only be aroused by reading ancient languages that foreshadow their grandiose future achievements.”
When Oppenheimer, allegedly poisoned Blackett’s apple, it should have been a scene about his mental health issues at the time. Rather than a completely fabricated suspense scene. People who were aware of the incident questioned if it ever really happened. It would have been more impactful to have a scene where Oppenheimer meets with his analyst from that period. The movie decides to simply say that it happened and for some reason interjected Bohr.
The portrayals of characters was a highlight of the film. Most of the acting was great. It was, however, overly stuffed with high profile actors, which turned the film into a distracting cameo bingo game.
The physical and psychological aftermath of the atomic booms dropping on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not adequately portrayed. It did not show well enough the psychological toll it took on the scientists on the project or portray the horrific physical toll it inflicted on the Japanese people. The slide reel scene not showing a single image of the attack was a poor choice. It demonstrates that Hollywood is completely ok with an R rating for showing nudity, but not for confronting people with the horrors of human cruelty.