Movie Review: Tenet
SPOILER ALERT: Christopher Nolan’s latest film is now available to rent on Amazon, and it has been in theaters (though, if you’re like me, you still aren’t quite ready to go back to movie theaters yet). As such, I’ll try to stay away from overt spoilers. As with many of Nolan’s films, there are unique twists and turns in this one. At the bottom of this post is a quick note about the film’s content. Beyond that, I encourage you to see the film before reading this review.
Can you have too much of a good thing?
That question came up in my mind repeatedly while watching Christopher Nolan’s latest film, Tenet. Nolan is - without a doubt - one of our greatest living filmmakers. He has a unique gift for connecting the craft of filmmaking with stories for mass audiences. When tentpole studio fare tends to be more common in the highest grossing film lists, Nolan has found a way to bring his original stories to the masses. I also recently rewatched The Dark Knight, and I was reminded again of Nolan’s greatness.
Nolan’s calling card is a mystery box storyline that messes with time in some fashion. Tenet absolutely follows in this career line for Nolan, and even takes it to a new level.
It follows The Protagonist, played by John David Washington, on a story of national espionage. In many ways, Tenet is one of the best James Bond films ever made. It certainly plays on a lot of the foundation from that franchise in how it tells its story. The film opens with a terrorist attack, but we’re not really sure what all the implications of it are. Soon, we find out, the world is at stake in a way that is more far-reaching than any threat that had ever been faced before.
Washington is a rising star of an actor. It would be easy for him to live in the shadow of his famous father (Denzel Washington), who is one of the greatest actors to ever live. Instead, he was forged his own path and is beginning to build a compelling run of films in his own right. His performance is fantastic, here. Along with him in this stellar cast is Robert Pattinson as Neil, a fellow agent. Elizabeth Debicki (increasingly becoming one of my favorite actresses), plays Kat, the wife of the film’s main antagonist - Sator (Kenneth Branagh). Nolan regular, Sir Michael Caine, also makes an appearance with a minor role.
What to say of the film’s plot? It deals with terror on a national scale. It plays with time in unique ways. It has fantastic set-pieces throughout the film. All of these are key features in nearly every film from Christopher Nolan.
What is not present here that does come through in other Nolan films is emotion that comes from character and story.
Maybe the best comparison from Nolan’s previous films to this one is Inception. That film also had a mystery box at its core that played with time. There, however, he knew enough about the characters to really feel for them. There was emotion that made the film’s ending hit even harder.
Nolan attempts to hit that emotional button with Debicki’s character. But I would contend that she is never more than a passive character in this story. Even when she takes a leading role in the plot by the two agents to save the world, forces around her are acting on her to make decisions. I did not find her to be a fully-realized character, and hers is the only one that even comes close to that. Which, by the way, is by no means an indictment of the actors. I found the acting in the film to be fantastic. I just think the film is written in a way where the mystery box is the focus of the story rather than the characters. Even in Inception, I felt the story came out of the characters, and the mystery box added to that. To me, there’s a big difference.
At this point, I should make it clear that Tenet would be, for many directors, a career achievement. That it is not one of Nolan’s best does not mean that it is not a strong film. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. But it does not reach the heights of many of his earlier films because I felt that he went too far in the direction of creating a story that plays with time without building out from the emotional storyline of his characters.
Probably the best feature of this film is Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography. Again, I don’t want to give too much of the plot away. What I will say is that - with the fashion in which the film plays with time - it lends itself to some absolutely striking images in ways that I’m not sure any other Nolan film has achieved. Even the inverted city of Inception is not quite as striking as some of the time-warped imagery in this film. I imagine that this will be on the short list for many cinematography awards this year.
Hoytema has been a frequent Nolan collaborator, as has Caine. The name you won’t see here that you might expect is that of composer Hans Zimmer. Instead, the film is scored by Ludwig Goransson, who brings a fresh take to the Nolan sound. Goransson previously won an Oscar for his incredible score for the film, Black Panther.
While we’re on the topic of sound, however, the sound design is the film’s worst component. Much of the dialogue is difficult to hear. And, while Nolan’s films are known for their loud action, this film goes too far in that regard. Nolan is, in many ways, a disciple of director Michael Mann. Heat is a film that particularly looms large as an influence on Nolan. I’ve never heard a film that sounds quite like Heat. That film had loud action, too, but it was more technical in the sound design of quieter moments than this film is.
As with Nolan’s other films, I would imagine that multiple viewings help here. I’ve only seen the film once, but I do look forward to seeing it again. It is a good film. I just couldn’t help but feel that Nolan has become an event unto himself. His films are original and yet they connect on a mass scale. This is a unique accomplishment that has made him one of the foremost directors of our time. I absolutely rate him in that rarefied air.
Yet this film felt like he took the components that have marked his past successes, cranked them to 11, and went all in on the time shifting while failing to have a good enough story at the center.
NOTE ON CONTENT: The film has violence throughout. There are gunfights, car crashes, and hand-to-hand combat of the kind you would expect to see in an action film of this nature. None of it is gratuitous. There is profanity throughout, as well, but no overt sexual content or nudity to speak of. The film is rated PG-13.