No Spoilers For Tenet
The road to Tenet has been an interesting one, to say the least. When that first teaser was released back in December 2019 no one knew that by late February the world would be in lockdown due to a deadly pandemic.
As quickly as theatres were closing movies were jumping ship either being pushed to 2021, going to video-on-demand services or just being put quietly away with unknown release dates.
Quickly all eyes were on Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s eleventh feature film. The movie quickly became the only blockbuster movie to be released theatrically this summer. With the fate of the movie-going experience dropped into its lap, Tenet gained this almost mythical level of hype. As the hungry audiences waited longer and longer, theories about Tenet’s secret plot grew more and more outrageous. Is it a sequel to Inception? Is it about 9/11? And most importantly… does it tie into Fortnite?
And now I can tell you that it is not any of them, it is exactly as it says it is. And that is what makes it so good.
Tenet is one of Nolan’s most ambitious movies yet, conceptually and literally. The globe-trotting spy thriller follows The Protagonist (John David Washington) as he tries to stop the annihilation of the world at the hands of the nefarious Sator (Kenneth Branagh). The twist on this classic story being that said villain is manipulating time to do so. From the beginning, we are thrown into the deep end as the movie grabs a hold of you and never lets you go. Over the first forty-five or so minutes it throws a whole bucket load of information at you, hoping that you are taking notes.
From crashing a real Boeing 747 to impossible reverse fight scenes, Tenet was built for the theatrical experience. The incredible set pieces would make James Cameron weep. The movie is at its most exciting when Ludwig Göransson’s score is pounding across the theatre, when the action is so intense that you sit on the edge of your seat, when the gorgeous cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema blows your mind and when you are so hooked by the movie that you forget to drink your £3.95 fizzy drink. When it is firing on all cylinders during these moments you will hope the cinemas never close ever again. The movie is stepping on the gas and rarely checks to see if you are in the car, like Clémence Posey’s character says, “Don’t try to understand it, feel it”
The magic of Tenet is that while there is all this science fiction malarkey going on it is rooted in a human story. While Nolan is waving his left hand with the explosions and the cars driving backwards you forget to see what his right hand is doing.
Until it hits you. Like it hit me.
I gasped like I have done before while watching one of Nolan’s movies. You never see it coming because even though he does it nearly every time, it always works. The balance between the two hands leads to a great and wonderfully sentimental conclusion that I will not spoil.
Part of this is down to the actors and how well they sell these insane concepts to you. Elizabeth Debicki once again steals the show, just like she did in Widows, as the heart of the movie. While John David Washington and Robert Pattinson steer the ship with their confident and charming performances that captivate you and lead you through all the complexities of this time-travelling world. Kenneth Branagh is also pretty good as he hams it up as the James Bond-esque villain, he knows exactly what he is doing and does it so well.
I do believe I need to see it a lot more to fully grasp what was being shown but I was surprised at how much I did understand. It is not overbearingly complex, but it is still a headscratcher at times.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, I loved every second of this movie, sure I have some small nit-picks here and there but who does not. It is a joy to see a new movie in the cinema once again, and such a good one at that! I highly recommend going to see this movie BUT I do not recommend it if you live in a location that still has a large number of Covid-19 cases because while the movie is good it is not worth dying over!
