Tenet

After a long absence I have returned to the cinema, adorned with a mask, and armed with a large tub of popcorn – not the best combination. The film I returned to the cinema for was the summer sci-fi blockbuster tasked with saving cinema, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. It won’t save cinema. Hopefully it won’t need to. But it is well worth a watch.

Nolan has a habit of distorting time and reality (sometimes both) in his films, as he did with the likes of Memento and Interstellar, and Tenet is no different. Both the film’s name and narrative are palindromic. It could have easily been called ‘radar’ or ‘reviver’, or they could have rolled the dice with ‘Never odd or even’. The film moves both forwards and backwards in time as the protagonist, Denzel’s son and former St. Louis Rams’ running back*, John David Washington battles to save the world in an international espionage thriller.

*(I don’t think he ever got a game, just thought it was an interesting fact)

The film was built on a very clever concept (inversion) but unfortunately you could see the main twists coming a mile off. You couldn’t fault the ambition of the film, but the execution, in terms of the storyline, was underwhelming. The film spends an incredible amount of time explaining itself to the audience through various character cameos and at one point Robert Pattinson’s character, Neil, in a nod to the audience, even asks the protagonist “does your brain hurt?” Spoiler alert – it does. Don’t worry about brushing up on the process of inversion, in which an object or a person can have their entropy reversed, thus moving backwards in space while others move forward, but in a ‘twilight world’ where guns catch bullets and exploded buildings reassemble, it makes sense for your brain to hurt a little. The protagonist is in a race against time, where time stands still, moves forward and moves backwards. It certainly makes for an incredible car chase or three.

Pattinson has successfully broken out of his previous typecast as he segues to his new role as Batman, whilst BlacKkKlansman star Washington is fantastic as the unnamed protagonist, or in effect, Nolan’s very own James Bond. At one point Neil asks “what the hell happened here?” to which the protagonist responds “it hasn’t happened yet.” Ironically, for a film moving both forwards and backwards, a key phrase from the film is “what’s happened, happened,” which is less reassuring than the cast of Love Island telling you “it is what it is.”

The concept might be confusing and the key points in the story-line are somewhat predictable, but it is an enjoyable ride nonetheless. The film is packed full of mind-blowing visuals and a soundtrack that never gives you a moment’s rest.  Don’t try and understand it, just enjoy it. I think it might be more enjoyable on a second viewing, as there will be a number of Easter eggs for second time viewers, and it might even make sense by the time you watch it a third time.