Although its story is based on real life, Oppenheimer But not immune to this problem. In fact, you’d be surprised to learn how few female characters appear in this movie, given how many women were involved in the Manhattan Project. From mathematicians and physicists to librarians, medical staff and administrative staff, more than 10 percent of Los Alamos residents are women. (Which, thanks to the size of the project, numbered well over 600 people.) Although these women weren’t exactly household names in the same way that, say, Leo Szilard, Edward Taylor, or Isidore Rabi were, they weren’t. Make their contribution—or the fact that they were present!—any less important or deserving of recognition.
Experimental physicist Chien-Shiung Wu helped develop a process for separating uranium that confirmed Enrico Fermi’s theories about beta decay. Nuclear physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer, who would go on to share the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1963, worked with Taylor on isotope fractionation. Mathematician Naomi Livesey played a key role in the calculations that made the Trinity Test possible. But despite the presence of literally hundreds of women—and a literal baby boom—Nolan’s Los Alamos is a heavily male-coded place. Lily Hornig, a female chemist who worked on plutonium research, appears briefly onscreen and is played by Olivia Thirlby but makes almost no impact, making frequent jokes about how to type and the female reproductive system. (Trust me, I desire (I was just kidding.) The rest of the women in the film are, for the most part, given nothing more than to perform domestic tasks or cheer on the accomplishments of the men in their lives.
The film’s two meatiest female roles are also almost entirely J. Conceived around her romantic relationship with Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). Florence Pugh’s Jean Tetlock was the psychiatrist and writer responsible for Oppenheimer’s introduction to radical politics, although the film is more interested in the idea of an emotionally unstable ex with mental health problems. (Or speculating about the manner of her death.) What a waste of Pugh, whose most memorable moment onscreen is the sex scene that gives Oppenheimer reason to recite his famous quote. Bhagavad Gita.
Unfortunately, Oppenheimer’s wife A fair bit better. The real Kitty (played by Emily Blunt onscreen) was a talented biologist with her own complicated romantic history. Still, her unhappiness at Los Alamos is drawn in broad strokes and lacks anything that could be called nuance. She is visibly miserable, struggling with what appears to be postpartum depression, drinking heavily and steadfastly ignoring her newborn baby’s wails. But the film isn’t interested in giving her the depth to explore any of those feelings or experiences.
To her credit, Blunt makes the most of the underwritten material she’s given. Heck, she basically earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination on the strength of her powerhouse performance where Kitty testifies at Oppenheimer’s hearing, finally showing how much more capable she is than most of the men around her. But it’s a sequence in a movie that clocks in at three hours, and as great as it is, it’s an uncomfortable reminder of how More Nolan could have done with Kitty’s character.
Over the course of the film, we see Oppenheimer interact with many of the leading scientific minds of his time, forming relationships with these men that range from friendly and competitive to outright adversarial, and often boasting a depth that his relationships rarely possess. Are given. Any woman in his life. What’s worse is that neither Kitty nor any of the other female characters in the film are given the same kind of bonds with each other, and it’s hard to remember if any of them are given the chance to do something as simple as having a regular conversation.
