Tenet (2020) – Review

This review will feature *NO SPOILERS* about the plot as one of the most refreshing aspects of this film was the fact that I had absolutely no idea what was happening before I watched it. The only problem is that I had no idea what was happening during, nor after watching the film. Let’s start at the beginning...

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In a way, I do feel bad for Christopher Nolan as this film - which is, in a way, a more than serviceable espionage spy movie - ultimately garnered the largest expectations of any movie of recent memory since The Force Awakens. This was, after all, the movie that would re-open cinemas and bring everything back to them...hopefully. I didn’t let these expectations get in the way and tried not to let them affect me, but I still couldn’t help being swept up by the whole excitement around the film’s release. After all, Nolan has been at the forefront for many years of attempting to bring people back into the cinemas in a world of streaming. He has made it so that every one of his films is an event, rather than your regular release. Nolan is a pure cinema film-maker and it’s often commented that his films “need to be seen on the big screen”. I personally feel that all films are improved by being seen on the big screen, but I also understand how the landscape around us is changing underneath our feet. I’m going to come back to that term of "pure cinema" later in this review, because it’s there where the film’s best elements can be found.

A brief and vague synopsis is that the film follows John David Washington as he attempts to thwart world war 3. So how is a film with that log-line almost dull? I’ll explain. I don’t think the film is dull, but I do think that it is rather numbing. For many years the plot of the marvellous L.A. Confidential has evaded me and ultimately by the final half hour I just give up again and follow that it’s bad guys vs. good guys, but what makes that ending work is that I know who the good guys and who the bad guys are. When it came to the final twenty minutes of Tenet , I genuinely had no idea who our good guys were going up against, other than their leader in Kenneth Branagh, as Russian oligarch Andrei Sator. However, the set piece is visually incredible (as all the set pieces are in this film). In regards to pure cinema the film delivers time and time again, but it’s the connective tissue that leads to the film’s downfall. To put it simply, the film is obscenely hard to follow. At this point I can understand many people turning on me, declaring me dumb or stupid or whatever and I’m not going to get into a defensive corner and list all of the complex movies that I do fully understand, for that sort of activity would be fruitless. I want to say that the film doesn’t make any sense because after ten watches and a thorough read of the screenplay, I might find it be as simple a plot as Caddyshack (not that Caddyshack has a simple plot, but I digress).

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The biggest obstacle that Nolan faces in this film is himself. The film constantly gets in its own way and ruins what could have been a very, very good and enjoyable spy film. This is, for me, the film where Nolan’s great love of Bond shines through the most. In many ways, with its charismatic and handsome lead, multiple locations and monologue spouting villain, it’s the Bond movie that we have always wanted him to make, just with a sci-fi twist. For the entire first half of the film I kept wishing that the film removed it’s sci-fi "inversion" element and was just a straightforward spy film, for it would make the film infinitely better. This element does come more into play in the second and third act of the film, and although visually entertaining, it only serves to further muddy the plot. 

The script is the main problem here as, despite having multiple scenes explaining the facets of the science, nothing ever becomes clearer. Despite the stakes of the A plot being the end of the world, we become more and more invested in the B plot surrounding Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh’s son. Also the sound mixing further makes the plot ineligible as many vital scenes and dialogue exchanges are rendered close to inaudible due to the sound mixing and the score being so loud. Although the score by Ludwig Goransson is superb and perfectly fits the themes and atmosphere of the film, it ultimately becomes distracting and annoying as we find it harder and harder to hear the dialogue throughout the course of the film.

The film is exceptionally made (bar the sound mixing), with Nolan’s direction being its impeccable self and the editing of Jennifer Lame being another standout. But all this talent grows to be frustrating more than anything, as it is used to deliver such a convoluted script, and without revealing what the motive is, the motive for Branagh’s villain really doesn’t feel justified at all when it comes to the weight of what he is trying to do in the third act. This further leads to the final act being more dull than exciting. You do care what’s happening...but only just. Again, the only reason this film is so infuriating is because it’s set pieces are so excellent that it ultimately leads the film to be more disappointing than it should be. It’s almost as if the film has to release its "difficult second album" every twenty minutes after another brilliantly executed scene, never living up to the promise of its earlier moments.

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Let’s talk about some of the film’s performances. John David Washington is the protagonist who is only known as such, in another choice that seemingly is done to add mystery but is done for no reason. Washington is great and fills the role of the cipher-esque leading action star rather well. Robert Pattinson is superb (as usual and lends a much-needed levity to the film. Kenneth Branagh is simultaneously very scary and unsettling, but also is way over-the-top in certain scenes and led me to softly chuckle under my covid mask. The star for me here is Elizabeth Debicki who is sensational (as always) and is finally getting some leading roles. I first noticed her talent in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - which I thought was a desperately underrated film at the time and still is really - but last year’s Widows just further solidified what a great talent she really is. Fortunately, Tenet has allowed her to further show off her talent - mainly in the final act as she is unfortunately not fully present in the second act which, I feel, is to the film's detriment.

Will I watch the next Nolan film? And the one after that? And the one after that? Of course I will. Will I watch Tenet again? Most definitely. I will watch Nolan’s output forever, I just wish, for once, he returned to the blissful simplicity of his earlier films, which had all of the complexity and mystery of these later films but cemented them in sturdy and great scripts filled with character and emotion aplenty.

An unfortunately befuddled 6/10 (albeit a very tough one to give such a low score). There is the skeleton of an excellent espionage thriller buried in this film, underneath all of its gobbledy-gook; however, as the film goes on it buries its worth deeper and deeper until you leave not really knowing whether you saw a good film or a bad film. This is definitely not a bad film and it’s still a solid 6/10 in my eyes. It may even have been a good film, but it’s unfortunately not a great film, nor an excellent one like some of Nolan’s others. Note the repeated use of "unfortunately".

P.S. All the temporal mechanics and visual tricks still don’t touch the fact that the best visual moment of the film and the most satisfying is a blissfully brief moment involving spilt sun cream. Watch the film and I’m sure you’ll agree.

-Thomas Carruthers