Minor spoilers for Tenet below...
Depending on its presentation, time travel in film is often a head scratcher – but it’s rarely more bewhildering or disorienting than in Christopher Nolan’s latest sci-fi effort. Tenet is rooted in a mind-bending concept that will likely pique your interest, but leave you asking exactly what it was all about when the credits roll.
I’ve no doubt that many Christopher Nolan fans will be lapping Tenet up and going back for more. Having said that, repeat viewings will be pretty much essential for anyone hoping to get a real grasp of its mythos and plot technicalities. And while that can be a good thing, it definitely isn’t when it comes to Tenet (and I consider myself a Nolan fan – I loved Inception and Interstellar).
John David Washington stars as the Protagonist – a CIA agent tasked with averting a disaster worse than nuclear holocaust. Yes, we’re talking about THE END OF THE WORLD. ‘Inverted’ objects (meaning they travel backward through time) are being sent into the past using technology from the future. Considering the high stakes and shocking revelation of time travel, the Protagonist isn’t particularly fazed – it’s just another day at the office for him it seems.
A scientist explains the film’s daft brand of psuedoscience to him in grating detail, then disappears for the remaining duration. Other characters crop up in similar fashion, serving only to deliver endless lines of exposition and give the Protagonist his next task or destination. Every morsel of world building is simultaneously over-explained and under-explained (no amount of detail would ever be enough to make sense of this). Each key story beat is bursting at the seams with information for the audience to quickly gobble up and digest before moving on to the next course.
Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) is the bad guy who is bad. He beats his wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki) and refuses to let her leave him no matter how much she despises him. There’s something going on with a forged piece of artwork that he holds over her but it’s all a bit vague and dull. It’s also worth noting that his primary reason for wanting to END THE WORLD is because he just wants to. And he doesn’t want anyone else to be with his wife. Lame stuff, really.
Robert Pattinson plays Neil, the main man’s handler who likes a drink. While his character is completely typical for a laid-back, quick-witted drinker who also happens to be incredible at his job, he’s great and his performance is a real highlight. I’m looking forward to seeing him in The Batman next year. Michael Caine pops in for a hello and some exposition over a tasty looking steak, but his role here is so minor there’s not a whole lot that can be said about it.
Washington is quite subdued here, and would be lost in the shuffle if it weren’t for his lead role. It’s disappointing, but I suspect this is how he was instructed to play it. The Protagonist’s near-total lack of character motivation and backstory also detracts and doesn’t leave him with much to work with while attempting to bring the character to life.
There’s lots of talk about secret organisations and shadowy figures, but they’re not seen or adequately elaborated on so it all feels irrelevant. And the timeline of events doesn’t help. ‘The future’ is to blame for most of this world’s problems, but exactly when in the future isn’t addressed. We’re just supposed to accept everything we’re told as plausible and logical, whether we understand it or not.
Despite my complaints, the sound, musical score and action set pieces are top notch. They’re what you’d expect, but that’s totally fine. Bullets, cars and soldiers whizzing around backwards is properly fun and exciting, and Tenet would have benefitted from more of it. You do see some of these scenes twice because time travel, and it’s interesting to watch them play out in reverse. Eagle-eyed viewers will probably spot subtle hints to the alternate reality occuring in the background.
Tenet is overly ambitious. It’s an exciting concept that falls flat in execution, made worse by boring characters, needless chatter attempting to explain the unexplainable, and a disjointed chronology. Christopher Nolan has made some greats and we’re desperate for new, exciting blockbusters after a terrible year for cinema – but Tenet misses the mark. It’s begging for people to talk about it and they will be. But only because they didn’t get it.
Final score: 3/10
–
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
