Review: Tenet (2020)

 Tenet (2020)

TLDR: A true 'Nolan-extravaganza': it is shiny and fun to look at, yet utterly nonsensical and devoid of anything resembling an emotional core. Smartly, the film never stops for even a moment's breath to let you reflect on its absurd logic, which might enable you to see the plentiful holes in this piece of cinematic swiss cheese. 

There is no denying that people were clamouring to see Nolan's newest blockbuster Tenet. He is arguably the master of contemporary smart action, which makes every new film he comes out with one that comes with preconceived excitement and hype. On top of that, not only was Tenet always to be one of this year's biggest releases, but it also now rings in the re-opening of theatres across the globe, making this film, on multiple levels, a big deal. 

In some ways, Tenet does succeed in creating a celebratory reason to return to the silver screen: it is an ostentatious film, shot in mammoth IMAX ratio, and filled with wondrous action, special effects and set pieces. Films such as this are simply meant to be seen in theatre. However, as a complete film itself, Tenet fails in many ways. In crafting this film, Nolan seems to have pulled many of his favourites from his thick playbook of cinema and weaved them together to make a flashy yet incongruous film that tells you to think hard about the logic it has created to form its story, but never allows you a moment's pause to stop and think. This is a good thing (for Nolan) as any reflection on the story would lead you to scratch your head and wish you could look down at the notes you wish you'd be making. 

Almost all of the facets of Tenet can be extrapolated to previous works of Nolan's. There are his tentpole pieces like time manipulation, espionage/heist sequences, bombastic action scenes and, of course, ridiculously convoluted plot. The issue with this go-around is that, whereas, in the past, Nolan seems to have found strong stories to craft his high-concepts around, in Tenet there really is no compelling story to be told. It very much seems that Nolan developed his concept here and the big sequences/twists he wanted, and then created a story that would act as a vehicle to allow him to get to his desired destination. What he smartly does is keeping the film moving at such a breakneck speed that viewers never have the opportunity to actually stop and think about the film they are watching (despite a significant amount of the film being heavy-handed exposition), which may result in them actually questioning what they are watching. Nolan's conceived 'time logic' here utterly baffles the mind to think about even when the film's characters go on and on trying to explain it to us. Likely, this film would have been more successful (and more fun) if it had bypassed trying to be clever and espousing its logic to us, and instead simply devoted more time to action and... character. Character is another area where Tenet greatly fails. The protagonist (John David Washington) is never developed past the point of being a more-than-capable agent. There is no 'backstory' (yes, I know...) and nothing that gives him anything resembling motivation or an interesting personality. As such, there is nothing for us to invest in with him. He does not have Bruce Wayne's struggle, he does not carry Cobb's history and baggage, he does not have Cooper's mission or family. No, the protagonist just 'goes along' and without much struggle... The rest of the cast are actually much more interesting and entertaining: Pattinson, Debicki and Branagh. The little emotional stake there is in this film surrounding Debicki's Kat and her son is barebones at best and feels as though it were tacked on last minute in order to create the minimum requirement for 'emotional weight'.

Overall, Nolan has simply out-Nolan'ed himself. While having twist after twist, and a film that demands rewatch, or heavy analysis to understand it, can be fun every now and then, it is less so when you either have to turn off your brain and just watch what is transpiring or, alternatively, pause the film to try to break down what the fuck is going on. As evidenced by Tenet's pacing and editing though, the latter is definitely not what is desired from its audience. The result of this is a greatly disjointed film that ends up being too clever (and perhaps too pretentious) for its own good. Regardless, while Tenet is still worth seeing for its bombastic opulence and a return to theatres, it will surely not go down as one of Nolan's best.