Tenet Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out After a career spent exploring the concept of time, director Christopher Nolan finally tackles the subject head-on in Tenet; a film not just interested in timelines, but directly focused on them. It’s a classic Nolan film in almost every way - packed tight with lofty ideas, impeccable set-pieces, and pacy plotting - to the point that it’s practically a comfort watch rather than exciting new ground. That sense of familiarity does breed some minor contempt, but in a world of franchise blockbusters, it’s a welcome sight to see an original, ambitious idea on the big screen once more. Tenet is a concept film, not just in the ideas that it builds upon, but also in the way that those ideas smartly inform the story’s structure. The key to that concept is time; both how it flows and how it can be manipulated according to this world’s rules. Similar to the way in which Inception structures its heist format around the concept of dream layers rather than vault infiltration, Tenet’s overall construction is directly linked to the inverted passage of time. The more you learn of how the world of Tenet works, the clearer you’ll see the direction it is headed, which results in a satisfying journey for the audience. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/22/tenet-official-trailer-2"] Also similar to Inception, Tenet pilfers pre-established ideas from espionage cinema and weaves them into its science fiction setting. This is a story involving shadowy agents, weapons traders, Russian oligarchs, and world-altering stakes. That Tenet relies so heavily on these aspects keeps its outlandish time concept surprisingly grounded; both protagonists and antagonists feel like humans rather than lords of time. Further aiding that feeling is Nolan’s approach to visual effects and action scene design. Much has already been made of the lack of computer-rendered effects at play, but that probably won’t prepare you for how surprisingly low-key Tenet’s action is. There’s nothing particularly breathtaking that you could put next to rotating hotel corridors or space station docking, with Nolan instead opting for simpler vehicle chases and building bungee jumps. Even the already-famous Boeing 747 sequence feels subdued, impressive more for its audacity than on-screen results. These moments are all shot with the director’s signature style - expect his dynamic camerawork, shadowy lighting, and muted colours - but this time around there’s more grit to the film’s texture. Losing the gloss of his biggest films helps Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema anchor Tenet’s sci-fi concept in reality. It’s when Tenet brings the camera close to its subjects, though, that its ideas really manifest into something special. One sequence involves leading man John David Wahsington fighting hand-to-hand, but his assailant is moving in reverse. This creates an oddly unsettling effect; the enemy combatant writhes and jerks in unnatural ways, making for something that’s almost a militarised Twin Peaks scene. It’s in sequences like this that Tenet’s time concept is most impressive, rather than its reversed car crashes or time-synced explosions. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=tenet-images&captions=true"] But while Tenet frequently has (very serious) fun with its ideas, the time concept sometimes feels like it’s working more in service of creating exciting visual spectacle than the story itself. It’s not as neat as Inception’s multi-layered dreams or Dunkirk’s triple timeline; that one character says “Don’t try to understand it” almost feels an admission of the film’s struggle to clearly communicate its premise. Like with many films that explore time, it’s difficult to fully make sense of how it all works. And while there’s no arguing that Tenet doesn’t feature an original plot, its reliance on impeccably dressed men chasing lofty mysteries does mean that it feels like it’s retreading ground previously explored by its own director; it’s near enough blood related to Inception, but you can also see elements of Memento and even the Dark Knight trilogy here. It’s also accompanied by a score that sounds like Nolan-Zimmer Collaboration 101, despite being composed by Ludwig Göransson. Unlike his recent, evolving approaches - the terrifying tension of Dunkirk and the grand existentialism of Interstellar - Tenet almost feels a little like Nolan working as a franchise rather than an auteur. This also means Tenet struggles when it comes to characterisation. Like much of his back catalogue, Nolan draws Tenet’s characters in broad strokes. They’re pieces in a plot-focussed puzzle more than fully-realised people. That John David Washington’s character is never referred to by name throughout the entire two-and-a-half-hour run time is a good indication as to Tenet’s priorities when it comes to characters vs narrative. This feels somewhat of a step back after the director’s achievements with Interstellar, which finally demonstrated Nolan’s chops for emotional humanity, and it works as a disservice to the astonishing talents of Washington and Robert Pattinson, who thankfully remain enjoyable leads that deftly navigate plenty of temporal exposition. There is some emotion to be found in Elizabeth Debicki as an estranged wife and mother, but despite an admirable performance and central role, she still feels more plot point than character. This isn’t helped by the fact that Debicki’s on-screen husband, Kenneth Branagh, is hamming it up as an almost comic book-grade menace, complete with a villainous Russian accent presumably found in a box of Cold War tropes.  

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