‘Guardians of the Formula’ Review: Cold War Politics Fuse with Medical History in Engrossing Chain-Reaction Drama
variety.comJessica Kiang Arriving at a moment when interest in all things atomic has been piqued by the global success of “Oppenheimer,” Dragan Bjelogrlić’s “Guardians of the Formula” offers a far more classical, but no less gripping take on a little-known episode marking a historical intersection between the medical and nuclear sciences.
Based on Goran Milašinović’s book “Vinča Case,” there are further echoes of Christopher Nolan’s epic in how this elegantly constructed movie centers the ethical and ideological dilemmas of brilliant men of science thrust, somewhat reluctantly, onto the international political stage.
But it differs in its careful inclusion of the heroism of ordinary people, and in showing how, while genius is valuable, it’s only prolonged exposure to more everyday human decency that can irradiate the more bull-headed scientific ego with the compassion needed for actual wisdom.
It is 1958 and Georges Mathé (a terrifically contained, compact performance from Alexis Manenti) is at work in his cluttered lab in the Curie Institute in Paris.
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