Tenet Movie Review
Tenet Movie Review
It should be no secret by now that Christopher Nolan likes to fiddle with the concept of time and his latest film, Tenet, is no exception. Time has always been a favoured motif for Nolan, running through his projects in some way or another. This preoccupation dates back to Memento (2000) when the English director manipulated the narrative by reversing the chronology of the events taking place. Since then, Nolan has explored this concept much further. Interstellar (2014) saw him play with gravitational time dilation, which effectively allowed him to confine a 100-year time period into a three-hour film. However, his new spy thriller is by far his most venturesome undertaking yet.
I walked out of the cinema scratching my head, wondering to myself how much weed Christopher Nolan must have smoked to conceive such an ingenious idea. I can imagine him watching Skyfall in his cloudy home cinema, crushing the butt of his joint in the glass ashtray beside him. Nowadays, most Hollywood directors would not touch time inversion with a barge pole, fearful that its complexity might scare viewers away. Luckily, Nolan has never heard of a house built on sand. It was an audacious idea – five years in the making – but one which he executed reasonably well nevertheless.
I won’t pretend to be a physicist, but even someone as witless as me eventually understood the premise of Tenet. If you are about to watch it for your first time, I would highly recommend doing some research about time inversion beforehand. This knowledge will stand you in good stead throughout the movie. Needless to say, you will inevitably leave the cinema with more questions than you have answers. Don’t panic. Such is the storyline’s complexity that it naturally demands a second viewing to fully grasp everything which happens. Like everyone else in the audience, I was trying to make sense of what I had just watched after the end credits. It was only when I familiarised myself with the subject of time inversion that Nolan’s film became clear.
I consider Christopher Nolan to be a neoteric director, whose passion for film is driven by his ability to evolve. In modern filmmaking, so many directors fall into the mistake of recycling mainstream narratives. They don’t even try to hide it anymore. Why? Because it usually promises success, like following a chef’s old recipe book. The results will be the same so long as you maintain its basic principles. Christopher Nolan is the exact opposite. He avoids hackneyed ideas like the plague. Tenet is a brilliant example of that. We so often perceive movies as being unidirectional, whereby time moves forward until we draw closer to an epic conclusion. However, Nolan throws away the rulebook. What if you had two characters going in opposite directions? They are both working for a common goal, but one is going forwards through time and the other is going backwards through time? The character travelling in reverse has knowledge of future events and can therefore alter their outcome. Everything about narrative management suddenly goes out the window.
Tenet is not without its flaws. There were areas of the film where I found myself utterly puzzled. Now that is likely down to the fact I have the attention span of a toddler, but the problem did not rest in my stupidity. When the movie did finally clear things up, it was mainly achieved through dialogue rather than just showing us. One of the golden rules of dramatic writing is to show not tell. Nobody wants the answers narrated to them. Otherwise, we would just listen to an audiobook instead. Unfortunately, Nolan stooped to the old trope of severely underestimating the intelligence of his audience. Yes, not everyone is a physicist, but not everyone is as slow as me. A cinema audience is surprisingly good at unravelling ambiguity. It seemed like Nolan used unnecessary dialogue to explain his way through the story; when the scenes should have spoken for themselves.
In spite of my criticism, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film. If you like pulse-raising action scenes and incredible cinematics then consider Tenet an early Christmas present. Although I struggled to follow the plot at times, my curiosity kept me perched on the edge of my seat. Besides, it’s not every movie where you get to watch a 747 aircraft deliberately crashed into a building. I can imagine Cary Joji Fukunaga was sat there taking notes. Another thing which impressed me was the music. Ludwig Göransson took over in place of Hans Zimmer, creating a soundtrack that perfectly complimented the intensity of the movie. The opening song called ‘Rainy Night in Tallinn’ had my heart batting against the walls of my chest. The only downfall was that it occasionally drowned out the dialogue.
I will definitely be watching Tenet again. You will understand after watching the movie yourself that it is an obligation. Now that I understand it clearer, I need to complete the jigsaw puzzle, like when I discovered that Tyler Durden wasn’t real in Fight Club (1999) or that Alfred Bordon was actually played by two people in The Prestige (2006). I want answers. But, more importantly, I want to understand them with my own eyes.
It should be no secret by now that Christopher Nolan likes to fiddle with the concept of time and his latest film, Tenet, is no exception. Time has always been a favoured motif for Nolan, running through his projects in some way or another. This preoccupation dates back to Memento (2000) when the English director manipulated the narrative by reversing the chronology of the events taking place. Since then, Nolan has explored this concept much further. Interstellar (2014) saw him play with gravitational time dilation, which effectively allowed him to confine a 100-year time period into a three-hour film. However, his new spy thriller is by far his most venturesome undertaking yet.
I walked out of the cinema scratching my head, wondering to myself how much weed Christopher Nolan must have smoked to conceive such an ingenious idea. I can imagine him watching Skyfall in his cloudy home cinema, crushing the butt of his joint in the glass ashtray beside him. Nowadays, most Hollywood directors would not touch time inversion with a barge pole, fearful that its complexity might scare viewers away. Luckily, Nolan has never heard of a house built on sand. It was an audacious idea – five years in the making – but one which he executed reasonably well nevertheless.
I won’t pretend to be a physicist, but even someone as witless as me eventually understood the premise of Tenet. If you are about to watch it for your first time, I would highly recommend doing some research about time inversion beforehand. This knowledge will stand you in good stead throughout the movie. Needless to say, you will inevitably leave the cinema with more questions than you have answers. Don’t panic. Such is the storyline’s complexity that it naturally demands a second viewing to fully grasp everything which happens. Like everyone else in the audience, I was trying to make sense of what I had just watched after the end credits. It was only when I familiarised myself with the subject of time inversion that Nolan’s film became clear.
I consider Christopher Nolan to be a neoteric director, whose passion for film is driven by his ability to evolve. In modern filmmaking, so many directors fall into the mistake of recycling mainstream narratives. They don’t even try to hide it anymore. Why? Because it usually promises success, like following a chef’s old recipe book. The results will be the same so long as you maintain its basic principles. Christopher Nolan is the exact opposite. He avoids hackneyed ideas like the plague. Tenet is a brilliant example of that. We so often perceive movies as being unidirectional, whereby time moves forward until we draw closer to an epic conclusion. However, Nolan throws away the rulebook. What if you had two characters going in opposite directions? They are both working for a common goal, but one is going forwards through time and the other is going backwards through time? The character travelling in reverse has knowledge of future events and can therefore alter their outcome. Everything about narrative management suddenly goes out the window.
Tenet is not without its flaws. There were areas of the film where I found myself utterly puzzled. Now that is likely down to the fact I have the attention span of a toddler, but the problem did not rest in my stupidity. When the movie did finally clear things up, it was mainly achieved through dialogue rather than just showing us. One of the golden rules of dramatic writing is to show not tell. Nobody wants the answers narrated to them. Otherwise, we would just listen to an audiobook instead. Unfortunately, Nolan stooped to the old trope of severely underestimating the intelligence of his audience. Yes, not everyone is a physicist, but not everyone is as slow as me. A cinema audience is surprisingly good at unravelling ambiguity. It seemed like Nolan used unnecessary dialogue to explain his way through the story; when the scenes should have spoken for themselves.
In spite of my criticism, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film. If you like pulse-raising action scenes and incredible cinematics then consider Tenet an early Christmas present. Although I struggled to follow the plot at times, my curiosity kept me perched on the edge of my seat. Besides, it’s not every movie where you get to watch a 747 aircraft deliberately crashed into a building. I can imagine Cary Joji Fukunaga was sat there taking notes. Another thing which impressed me was the music. Ludwig Göransson took over in place of Hans Zimmer, creating a soundtrack that perfectly complimented the intensity of the movie. The opening song called ‘Rainy Night in Tallinn’ had my heart batting against the walls of my chest. The only downfall was that it occasionally drowned out the dialogue.
I will definitely be watching Tenet again. You will understand after watching the movie yourself that it is an obligation. Now that I understand it clearer, I need to complete the jigsaw puzzle, like when I discovered that Tyler Durden wasn’t real in Fight Club (1999) or that Alfred Bordon was actually played by two people in The Prestige (2006). I want answers. But, more importantly, I want to understand them with my own eyes.
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