Tenet

Ambition, spectacle and trust. That’s what I think of when I think of a Christopher Nolan movie. His way of telling a story and ability to create the grandest of cinematic set-pieces combines for a kind of ambition that no one else is really doing. His earlier films are smaller in scale, but since The Dark Knight he’s emphasized on spectacles shot in IMAX that are made to devour your senses. The way his non-linear narratives play out asks the audience to trust him until the entire picture comes into focus. His detractors claim that his films are too icy to be fully embraced, and with regards to his previous effort, Dunkirk, I agreed. Now his latest film, Tenet, showcases Nolan at his best and worst, and almost solidifies him as his own brand.

If you type in “Tenet synopsis” into google you get the following: A secret agent embarks on a dangerous, time-bending mission to prevent the start of World War III. That’s a good enough plot description because I’d rather not hurt myself while making my own attempt.

Okay, I’ll try.

An unnamed CIA agent, only listed in the credits as The Protagonist (John David Washington), takes part in a SWAT operation at a Kiev opera house, where he is captured and tortured, before consuming a cyanide pill. He later awakens, learns the pill was fake, that his colleagues are dead, and that the mission was a test…or maybe the test would work for any mission so long as the agent chooses to take the cyanide pill. I was unclear on that. Anyway, The Protagonist’s reward is being recruited into a secret organization called “Tenet”, that deals in the art of moving backward through time in a process called “inversion.” This inversion has of course fallen into the wrong hands, specifically a Soviet oligarch (look it up) named Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), who can communicate with the future. With the help of Neil (Robert Pattinson), a skilled agent of sorts, the Protagonist infiltrates Sator through his estranged wife, Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), who’s son is being kept from her via Sator’s blackmailing.

There’s…uh…more to it than that, though not so much plot-wise to be honest, but Nolan bends and twists the narrative in ways that keeps things shrouded in mystery, and confusion. For some it will be pure confusion. That brings us to the first of three words that I used to describe Nolan’s movies: Trust. Nolan likes to deliberately keep the audience in the dark while his story unfolds, almost choosing to create a film that will improve upon re-watch. In order to do that, he has to trust that the audience will stick with it until all can be revealed, and the audience has to trust him with not wasting their time. I remember people complaining about Inception and Interstellar as though they were a Rubik’s cube, making those movies sound intimidating. I never felt the same way about those films, but that wasn’t the case with Tenet. I had a general feeling of not knowing what was going on throughout the movie, for a number of reasons.

On the plus side, there are sequences that come more into focus as the film goes along, and I felt in those cases that my patience with the film was delivered upon. Though sometimes the screenplay just feels intentionally convoluted. I couldn’t tell you how inversion works even though it’s sort of explained – part of that is because The Protagonist hardly uses it; part of it is because I found the dialogue generally difficult to hear. I usually don’t notice sound in a film unless it’s used really well, or really poorly. Usually Nolan’s use of sound when it comes to music, gunshots, and other important instances like the bomber planes in Dunkirk, is top notch. In Tenet though, the sound that comes from similar items drowns out the dialogue. And considering that the dialogue centers around being exposition-heavy, where characters keep attempting to explain something complicated, the inability to hear it renders it moot. Worst of all is that it takes away from the experience of watching the movie. This can be fixed with subtitles though. Still, some of the dialogue that I could hear was also kind of clunky, especially the response to the line “If he succeeds it’ll destroy every single living thing on Earth.” I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say it made me laugh it was so bad.

So while Tenet has issues, it also has the second word I associate Nolan films with: Ambition. There are scenes in Tenet that made me appreciate Nolan for simply coming up with them. The overall time-travel aspect of the plot is impressive in general, and the ability to bring it into a movie and wrap it around a story is astounding. The problem is that this film doesn’t have the character strength that Inception, Interstellar and The Dark Knight Trilogy did, let alone Nolan’s earlier, smaller films. The cast is really good though. John David Washington is a combination of slick and stoic, and despite the movie never giving him enough motivation, Washington is nonetheless a solid protagonist. Nolan described Pattinson’s Neil as the quintessential supporting character, and after watching the film, I get what he means. Pattinson has been making smaller films to shake off the glitter of Twilight, and I think his really charming work in Tenet will reintroduce him to the world in a big way. Elizabeth Debicki is a great presence in the film, luminously towering over everyone. And she makes the best out of a character who feels little more than a damsel in distress. Kenneth Branagh surprised me with some truly great scenery-chewing work. Nolan has always hinted at wanting to make a Bond movie, and that shows in Branagh’s villain.

The final word for my describing a Nolan film is “Spectacle,” and Tenet is that if nothing else. There are insane sequences like a hallway fight and a car chase that are masterfully crafted. I wish the world could see this movie on a big screen, because that’s where awe deserves to be appreciated. The visuals of a building simultaneously being blown up and regenerated are remarkable, not to mention that so much of what we’re seeing is being done in-camera. The music by Black Panther‘s Ludwig Göransson is a grand Hans Zimmer-esq score. I especially liked how the certain parts of the score are played backwards depending on which direction in time the characters are moving.

I’ll admit that the finale of the film was underwhelming for the fact that I had no clue who the bad guys were, and nearly had no idea what was happening. But Nolan wraps things up neater than I expected, and made me want to watch his film all over again. Because while I liked it, I think I may like it more a second time through. Some will find this film infuriating and confusing, with too many ideas left unexplored in favor of a bunch of dull words you can’t really hear. I would respect that opinion of Tenet. I enjoyed it for its spectacle, ambition, visuals, performances, and for being as Nolan as they come, even if it isn’t Nolan at his best.

Grade: B