THIS REVIEW CONTAINS NO SPOILERS FOR TENET
A well dressed figure stands, alone, against a global threat. Unsure of whether time is his ally or enemy. I could be talking equally about John David Washington’s “Protagonist” and the plot of Tenet, or Christopher Nolan’s apparent crusade to get his film into theaters at all costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s no doubt that a lot is riding on this film, the first major release of the much delayed summer blockbuster season, but is it warranted?
Time Is on My Side?
Human beings crave novelty. Not novelty as in the type of store that sells cheap tacky tchotchkes, but in experiencing the new and truly different. It’s why special effects that once wowed, never seem so impressive the second time around. It’s why the law of diminishing returns exists and why, even with the addition of Michael Caine, Jaws: The Revenge can’t stoke a fraction of the fear or elation that Spielberg’s original did.
Tenet is one of those films that feels like something truly new and one that I was completely enthralled by, while borrowing heavily from old favorites. This is the kind of cinema experience I crave.
Like The Matrix, nobody can be told what Tenet is (about), you have to see it for yourself. What we can say, however, is that it’s a James Bond flavoured spy thriller, centred around the concept of “inversion.” That there are objects, like say a bullet, whose passage through time has somehow been reversed. Rather than travelling forwards in time like the rest of us, these items work their way backwards through the flow of time. Instead of being shot from a gun into a target, inverted bullets fly out of targets and back into the barrel.
The obsession with time has always been there in Nolan’s films. Memento shuffled time like a deck of cards, Dunkirk spliced bits of it together, while Interstellar simply ploughed though it. With Tenet, Nolan is pulling a Missy Elliot with time – flipping it and reversing it.
The simpler explanation – some things go backwards in this movie.
This Is Your Brain on Tenet.
While reverse motion has been used cleverly before (like in the “Backwards” episode of British sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, which saw our heroes involved in a “bar room tidy” on a planet where time flows backwards), the magic of Tenet is that Nolan takes these various objects and people in reverse motion and have them interact with objects in forward motion, often on a massive scale.
Trying to figure out how scenes were filmed/how effects were achieved while watching the film is a fool’s errand, much like trying to decipher some of the more convoluted aspects of the “not-time travel” plot. You’re better off letting the film wash over you and enjoying the spectacle, with plenty of time (and think pieces) available later to help you figure out what exactly is going on, and when.
That’s not to say that Tenet is a difficult film. This is not Primer, you won’t quite need a chart to follow what’s going on (although one might help). Nolan leaves plenty of clues to keep you on board with what’s happening. At times I became giddy as it dawned on me where Nolan was going with some of the action, or plot, and just how up my cinematic alley it was. This is not because I am particularly clever, it’s because Nolan led me there.
Tenet gave me the same feeling as when I first realised Stranger Things was going to feature actual monsters and parallel worlds, or when Ariadne bent Paris in Nolan’s own Inception.
Here is the novelty I craved, but not without due care for the audience, as well as trust in them.
Fight the Future
The concept is ably supported by its cast. John David Washington is thoroughly enjoyable as the charming “Protagonist” (that’s the only name he’s referred to in the film). While no one ever seems to truly buy him as the high class super spy he’s supposed to be, it’s of no mater to him as he dances around their expectations to achieve his goals. Pattinson is equally charming as the Protagonist’s slightly gin soaked partner in crime. The two follow in the footsteps of Nolan pairings like Cobb and Arthur (Inception) and Bruce and Alfred (The Dark Knight).
Kenneth Branagh provides a driven antagonist in the form of millionaire Russian terrorist Andrei Sator. One of the scariest moments of the film is conveyed, not through dizzying concepts, impressive stunt work, or special effects, but just through Branagh suddenly raising his voice. Terrifying.
Elizabeth Debicki is enjoyable in the type of role that used to be called a “bond girl,” but one who gets to enact her own revenge against those that wronged her. Despite the emotional connection that seems to drive much of the Protagonist’s actions towards her, this never really blooms into romance. Is that a good thing or a bad thing in a Nolan movie? I’m not sure.
mooR eht ni tnahpelE ehT
I enjoyed Tenet thoroughly and am looking forward to seeing it again. No one else is making films like this, on this scale, but let’s address the elephant in the room. I was lucky enough to watch Tenet in a country that has COVID-19 relatively under control. Cinemas are open, if operating at reduced hours, and I watched the movie in a theatre with socially distanced seating arrangements, and with an audience who all wore masks throughout the screening.
No piece of entertainment is worth risking your health for, so if you can’t experience the film in the same conditions, then I wouldn’t risk it.
Is it going to be the film that saves the film industry? No one should have that burden placed upon them.
All I can say is I loved it.
Tenet
150 minutes
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh
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