This Is Why Josh Hartnett’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Performance Hits So Hard

The big picture

• Oppenheimer
  showcases a cast stacked with notable performances from veterans to relative unknowns.
• Josh Hartnett's nuanced portrayal of Ernest Lawrence stands out as a key supporting role in the film.
• Hartnett's performance a
  Oppenheimer
  marks a significant step in the resurgence of his career, showing his evolution as an actor.

Christopher Nolan has a knack for struggling with impressive casts for his films, but he really outdid himself with his 3-hour historical epic. Oppenheimer. Even if the World War II biopic didn't include Nolan's frequent collaborator Michael Caine, the stacked ensemble is filled with a fantastic cast of veteran Hollywood stars, Academy Award-winning performers, underrated character actors, relative unknowns, and a few former box office titans who have seemingly disappeared over the past decade . It wasn't that long ago Josh Hartnett was the protagonist of films like Lucky number Slevin i Downed Black Hawk, but his star power seems to have evaporated, as some actors can only maintain the same level of success for so long. However, Hartnett has always been a more interesting and complicated actor than the roles he was given early in his career. Not only is Hartnett in the midst of a major comeback; basically clothes Oppenheimer with one of the most nuanced support performances.

Why is Oppenheimer's Ernest Lawrence so important?

Oppenheimer it is told in non-chronological order, in what has become a hallmark of almost all of Nolan's films. Although Hartnett does not play a major role in the black-and-white sections showing Lewis Strauss's confirmation hearings (Robert Downey Jr.), is central to the main story centered on the work of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where he first conceived much of the technology that ended up becoming critical within the Manhattan Project. The Berkeley sequences are not only where Oppenheimer unlocks some of his genius, but also where he falls in love with his second wife Kitty (Emily Blunt), and makes a community of friends for the first time. It is during this period that he works hand in hand with Hartnett's representation of Ernest Lawrence; In order for this sequence to work, it was necessary to have an outside perspective on Oppenheimer's work.

Ernest Lawrence was an incredibly influential figure in Oppenheimer's life. Although he is not someone Oppenheimer often admires and idolizes, like Neils Bohr (Kenneth Branagh) or Albert Einstein (Tom Conti), Lawrence represents the kind of man Oppenheimer could never become. Hartnett portrays Lawrence as a man of great importance, intelligence and class who also has a relatively normal social life and shows an ability to adapt to the stresses of his life. Lawrence encourages Oppenheimer to find a balance in his work, but it becomes obvious that someone with his genius capacity is not possible. It creates a strange tension between them; Lawrence feels both resentment and sympathy for his friend. Oppenheimer's inability to simply “turn off” his brain and focus on something other than his work may end up making him more historically important than Lawrence, but it negates any sense of fulfillment or happiness he might feel.

Josh Hartnett does a truly outstanding subtle job with his performance, as there is an interesting dichotomy between Lawrence's feelings about Oppenheimer. He is not resentful, as he and Oppenheimer are able to get along and share much in common thanks to their shared experience in nuclear research. Lawrence is someone who can communicate with Oppenheimer on an intellectual level about the groundbreaking studies being done, but is not able to reach the same next-level conclusions. Lawrence is well-mannered and knows what he's talking about, but he also recognizes that it's not his name that the world will remember. It was almost a reflective performance on Hartnett's part, as if he recognized that he was no longer the same star he had led. Pearl Harbor to its blockbuster hit two decades earlier.

Ernest Lawrence is important to “Oppenheimer” politics

Christopher Nolan isn't necessarily known as a “political filmmaker,” but while his films aren't necessarily as overt as the work of directors like Oliver Stone or Spike Leethere are strong themes against war and escalation The Dark Knight, Dunkirk, i principle. Oppenheimer is arguably Nolan's most overtly political work to date, and Lawrence is instrumental in unpacking the film's complex understanding (and critique) of the decisions Oppenheimer made on behalf of his country during his life. At first, Oppenheimer's relationship with Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh) is little more than a passionate romantic affair, but it is Lawrence who explains the danger of being involved with the socialist political movement at the time they meet. Lawrence has his personal feelings about the rise of the communist movement, but he worries that Oppenheimer's mind might be distracted when he is working on studies that could literally change the way humanity looks at the world.

The political differences between Lawrence and Oppenheimer are fascinating, and Hartnett does a great job of showing Lawrence's conviction in her beliefs and handling the dense political dialogue. It is fascinating that Lawrence's political beliefs did not run so deeply other than his expressed desire to keep all discussions of the socialist movement out of the classroom. Lawrence tells Oppenheimer that he considers himself a patriot, but also wants the university to be an institute of science and not a meeting place to start a potentially dangerous movement. He and Oppenheimer begin to drift further apart as a result, but still share a mutual understanding of what events transcend their own personal beliefs. Both men react with equal surprise and fear when receiving news Adolf HitlerThe invasion of Poland breaks off.

Josh Hartnett does a great job of showing Lawrence's empathy for Oppenheimer. While he understands that a traditional celebration isn't necessarily something Oppenheimer would enjoy, there's a friendship between the two men that continues afterward General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) takes him to work on the Manhattan Project. Lawrence refuses to report incriminating evidence on Oppenheimer during the government's investigation, and the two are able to shake hands at the end of the film. That's more than Oppenheimer can say Edward Teller (Benny Safdie), whose pro-nuclear beliefs created too much division between them.

John Hartnett is in the midst of a huge comeback

Hartnett is in the midst of a career resurgence, and it's great to see Oppenheimer gave him such a nuanced role to execute. Although he never seriously considered playing the role of Bruce Wayne Batman Begins, Hartnett has expressed his enthusiasm for Nolan's work and expressed an interest in working with great filmmakers. While it may have taken a while to get the chance to work with Nolan, his performance is essential in showing what made Oppenheimer tick both intellectually and personally. Given how internalized Murphy's performance is, it was important for someone like Hartnett to voice the objectionable concerns about nuclear power that the audience might have had.

It's easy to forget that while it started as a teenage “heart attack”, Hartnett had his roots in radical auteur cinema. One of his first prominent roles was in Sofia Coppolathe heartbreaking coming-of-age drama The Suicide Virgins, in which he plays a popular high school athlete who falls in love with his enigmatic neighbor. It's a role that explores masculinity in a very sensitive way and shows that Hartnett could take on challenging roles that were wise beyond his years. In the following decade, he continued to work with such acclaimed filmmakers as Brian de Palma, Robert Rodríguez, i Tim Blake Nelson. Oppenheimer it also gave him the proper opportunity to appear in a historical epic; while he didn't necessarily put in a bad performance Michael Baythe epic of World War II Pearl Harborit was hard to make his performance stand out from the other flaws of the film as a tribute to fallen heroes.

OppenheimerThe record-breaking box office haul certainly brought it back into the limelight, though Hartnett has a list of exciting upcoming projects in the works. Hartnett will be seen next M. Night ShyamalanThe twisted new thriller from trap, in which he appears to play a demented serial killer trying to avoid the authorities while attending a pop concert with his daughter. Shyamalan has promised that the film is full of “wild surprises,” so it's safe to expect some major thrills based on its history of delivering shocking plot twists. Hartnett might have been against type to play a ruthless killer, but yes Oppenheimer is an indication of anything, is that he has evolved a lot as an actor.

'Oppenheimer' works thanks to its supporting cast

Both Murphy and Downey Jr. they may have walked away with Academy Awards for their work in the film, however Oppenheimer it succeeds because of the extension of its support set. The film is more than three hours long and brings a lot of critical information to the audience about physics, history, ethics and interpersonal dynamics. The film may have been very confusing, especially considering Nolan's knack for telling stories in a non-linear fashion. However, the appearance of well-known stars in limited roles helps to ensure that the audience pays attention to some of the seemingly insignificant conversations. It's also great to see actors like Jack Quaid, Alden Ehrenreich, Dane DeHaan, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, Jason Clarke, James D'Arcy, Macon Blair, i Matthew Modine among others they get to participate in such a significant epic.

The inconclusive nature of Lawrence's appearance a Oppenheimer it's quite shocking as Nolan doesn't take the time to wrap up all the supporting characters in the story. While the creation of the atomic bomb undoubtedly involved many people, Nolan indicates that it was Oppenheimer's singular genius that resulted in such a cataclysmic world event that continues to have an emotional impact on viewers. Perhaps one day a proper biopic will develop solely about Lawrence, but Nolan was content to focus on the specific relationship he had with Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer is now available to stream on Prime Video in the US

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