Immaculately set in its period, this film about the making of the first atomic bomb by the Americans is not a bad movie, merely a dull one.

But, at well over two hours, that's almost as grievous a sin. Almost nothing happens until near the end, when one of the main characters gets burned by radiation.

There's very little that Paul Newman (as the military head of the operation), Dwight Schultz (as Robert Oppenheimer, the brains behind it), Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack, Laura Dern, Natasha Richardson and the rest of a very distinguished cast can do to enliven it. A film that talks itself out of being any good.