'Oppenheimer' unleashes Christopher Nolan on the 'father' of the atomic bomb

"Oppenheimer" seeks to match the mythological nature of its central theme -- an "American Prometheus," punished for bringing humankind the seeds of its potential destruction -- with a movie of equal heft, scale and (most of all) length. Writer-director Christopher Nolan's epic film essentially consists of three chapters, with the middle, Atlas-like, holding up the weaker, drawn-out beginning and end.