03 Sep TENET Review

TENET

dir. Chris Nolan, starring John David Washington, Kenneth Branagh, Robert Pattinson, and Elizabeth Debicki

Man, I don’t even know where to start with this.

Tenet, the 11th feature film directed by Christopher Nolan, was set to be one of the summer’s wildest blockbusters. In an age where sequels and franchises and everything superhero owns the middle of the year, Nolan films stand out like beacons in the dark, signaling that there are still original stories waiting to grab hold of the audience. To state that Tenet is a complete mess of a film could almost be perceived as true: garbled audio, incoherent plot structure, exposition dumps, and mustache twirling villains are abound in this movie, enough to dizzy the viewer and leave some shaking their heads in confusion. However, I fully believe Tenet was specifically designed to drive the audience to the theater for multiple watches to fully grasp and understand all the necessary gears and mechanisms that propel the plot and characters. On a second viewing, details slid into place, motivations made more clear, bonds between characters became stronger, and my overall enjoyment was far greater than my first watch. The audio is still horrible, there’s absolutely no redemption for Nolan and whoever was at the sound mix boards.

Tenet revolves around our Protagonist, played dressed to the nines by John David Washington, as he attempts to prevent Andrei Sator (certified mustache twirler Kenneth Branagh) from enacting his nefarious schemes. To aid our Protagonist, Robert Pattinson’s Neil joins the fray, playing easily one of his most likable characters. Dimple Kapaia, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Fiona Dourif and others also round out the cast, as well as Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Katherine, Kenneth Branagh’s wife who I’m still undecided on. Debicki is easily shaping up to be one of the finest actresses of her generation; I love seeing her on screen as either hero or villain, but she’s wasted in this movie. There’s a lot of her hanging out in the background as other characters do things, but as far as her and her relatively thin motivations in this movie? This role doesn’t serve her talents well. Still, the cast is on point, with Washington leading the way playing his Protagonist as a calm, confident, if not at times frustrated character. Many times in this movie we moviegoers are just as frustrated with the lack of overall information as he is. Nolan holds exposition as if it were some sacred creature: preciously doling it out in a small bits, giving us just enough nuggets to string us along as the Protagonist stumbles blindly through situations.

The action is top notch Nolan: exciting set pieces crafted by a veteran director and shot by cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, his third collaboration with Nolan (side note: Hoytema also shot Ad Astra, which if nothing else has plenty of visually stunning scenes). Tenet opens on an action scene as The Protagonist is sent on an exfil mission at the Kiev opera house. With stakes getting higher while a ticking clock gets lower, the scene is aided greatly in tension by the score from Ludwig Goransson, a departure from Nolan’s usual go-to in Hans Zimmer.  Tenet is beautiful to watch, the color design oscillates between a muted palette and bright neon, and the third act (essentially a giant action piece) is a delight to follow as events unfold and refold simultaneously. Is that third act confusing? It most certainly is, but after that second viewing I honed in on exactly what’s happening. Nolan swung for the fences and beyond with what can easily be considered as his most ambitious film to date. Remember that third act of The Dark Knight Rises? It’s nothing compared to the chaos of the third act here. Nolan will never get to direct a Bond movie and I think the world is a better place for it. That inability has lead to inspired works like Inception and now Tenet, especially as Kenneth Branagh’s Andrei Sator fits firmly in the camp of Sean Connery Bond villains.

A movie that takes numerous watches to fully grasp (much like his films Memento and Inception), Nolan has created a story that challenges the audience, dares them to keep up with the whirlwind pace, and still manages to delight with bombastic action and tension that keeps you on your toes at all times. That this was eventually (and foolishly) released during a global pandemic that forced the world to take a break from theaters made an unfortunate situation worse: Tenet, a film specifically designed for you to fork over your hard earned dollars on multiple occasions, will go down as one of the blights on Chris Nolan’s otherwise brilliant career.

Review by Darryl Mansel