[SPOILER ALERT] for anyone wanting to go into Tenet clean…
Thanks Christopher Nolan. Not for your “only in a movie theater” stance during a pandemic: that’s shortsighted. But thanks for your insistence on a higher quality of blockbuster film. Tenet is a puzzle that’s going to be fun to dissect for all people of all ages, or if puzzle solving isn’t your jam, there’s some spectacular explosions and things that go BOOM!! Or, should I say, !!MOOB.
Our Protagonist (John David Washington, and yes, that’s his name in the movie) starts the movie as a CIA operative trying to stop a terrorist attack on an opera performance in Ukraine. He sees strange events trying to stop the attack, which lead him into a secret organization that’s trying to stop the apocalypse from happening in the future via clues from that future. The protagonist’s journey to uncover what’s going on lands him a Q like colleague named Neil (Robert Pattinson), an arms dealer named Sator (Kenneth Branagh) and his wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), and a brilliant Indian scientist named Priya (Dimple Kapadia).
With Tenet, Christopher Nolan continues toward his destiny of being the fusion of our last 2 great blockbuster filmmakers: Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg. Now Nolan will never be the master of suspense, but he does have a knack for crafting a terrific thriller, mastering the art of chaos via a ticking clock. Tenet is no different, seeing as how our leads are, you know, trying to stop the world from ending. Inside the large puzzle of “What the hell is going on?” is a series of mini heists that the director technically has lots of fun unfurling in front of his audience, like how to break into a freeport or how to invade a privately guarded weapons facility in 10 minutes or less. Each new scene leads to double crosses and reveals that alter the power structure the movie previously established, raising the stakes. Like a good heist team member, the orchestral score builds to each of the movie’s mini climaxes, propelling the movie forward, with Nolan conducting the film. And finally, also like Hitchcock, Nolan has a flare for British talent and beautiful blonde femme fatales.
So which of Spielberg’s talents is Nolan bringing to the table? Sadly, not enough of the emotional component: Tenet’s fun to solve but will leave you emotionally cold. Nolan did inherit Spielberg’s flare for a spectacular “Holy sh*t” moment with an action set piece (yes I know Hitchcock had this too, but Spielberg upped the ante with his career). Nolan is excellent at building moments that make you sit a little straighter. With Tenet this is easiest to see. We start with hand to hand combat, and slowly work our way up until we’re watching explosions from multiple angles simultaneously. I’d describe it, but this is one that comes close to the chills of watching Paris fold in half in Inception. The reason these action set pieces eye bulge the audience is because they’re weaved wonderfully into the fabric of the story, which means of course that car chase has a car careening in reverse at the same time. Nolan mixes them up though: sometimes he teases you with the planning of the characters, sometimes the set piece comes out of nowhere, but like Spielberg, Nolan gives us a moment or two we’ll all be talking about after we (safely) see Tenet.
In fairness, don’t watch Tenet on an iPad. Christopher Nolan’s latest is meant to be seen as big as safely possible. So go to a drive in, or a movie in the park or whatever you can to socially distant yourself and check Tenet out. All Chris Nolan wants to do is do right by his fathers Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg by confusion and wowing you at the same time.