Certain names carry a style of cinema unto themselves. Quentin Tarantino. Martin Scorsese. Steven Spielberg. Certainly, the generation of movie audiences growing up in this millennium has added Christopher Nolan to this list. His time-bending/breaking style of blockbuster stories with deeper, artistic themes have built higher expectations with each subsequent addition to his filmography. Within two decades, he went from making a movie on a $6,000 budget to Tenet’s reportedly $225 million (plus marketing) budget. What would one do with $225 million dollars? It’s hard to argue with Nolan’s apparent answer: whatever they want.
Ambition has no limits when Warner Brothers’ faith and extreme loyalty allow him to pull off stunts and ideas that can only be conceived in the human mind. Tenet, set originally premiere worldwide on July 17, moved its release date three times due to concerns over COVID-19. Given Nolan’s unwavering devotion to the immersive experience of theatrical showings, Warner Brothers (and, to some extent, the public eye) labeled this film as the one to save dying theater chains. In other words, this is an important film from an important filmmaker. It’s an event movie.
Nolan certainly lives up to that promise. In his style, he creates a unique time-inverted global spy thriller that, on a technical level, surpasses achievements we have yet seen on screen before. How do you shoot a gun undropping from the hand of John David Washington (our, literal, Protagonist) while he punches forward? It’s worthy of a 10-hour BTS documentary. Ludwig Goransson, stepping in for the Dune-occupied Hans Zimmer, satisfies the loud, oscillating notes that, like the film, have a reverse quality. All the performances are great, with a menacing Kenneth Branagh and charismatic Washington as highlights. On a technical level, the only flaw many will find is Nolan’s need to push the dialogue towards the bottom of the sound mix, making crucial information lost amidst the grand spectacle.
And that is the film’s fatal flaw. In the writer’s room, it feels like the idea of inverting time twisted Nolan’s ability to tell a solid story. Many might feel intimidated by the film’s “scientific” explanation that objects have reversed entropy caused by nuclear fission. However, especially during the first half of the film, audiences will be asking themselves two questions: “What are they doing?” and “Why are they doing it?” Paradoxically, this may be due to Nolan’s quintessential tool in his writer’s toolkit: exposition. Every line is new information that is delivered at the speed of a tennis table game at the Olympic games. There is no room to breathe. There is no time to process. A cut will move a character to a different country without any notice. Nearing the first hour, it feels overwhelming to the point of numbness. The closest to feeling empathy for any of the characters is Elizabeth Debicki’s Kat. But that too derives itself from the standard Nolan “add a woman/child to make them feel human” formula.
The film kicks itself into high gear at one single moment. Without giving it away, a revelation will cause audiences to examine the movie, up to that point, in a completely different way. From there, it is ALL spectacle. All plot. A wave of momentum will carry your waning interest to the finish line while making one think “This is the shit.” But the convolution still exists. It’s hard to identify why certain characters and people exist and act in the way they do. There is a usual lack of emotion that causes one to feel no investment in the outcome.
Many critics have pointed to a simple line in the film, spoken by Clemence Poesy’s character: “Don’t try to understand it. Just feel it.” as Nolan’s way of telling the audience how they should process the film. It both works and does not work. Any chance of feeling emotion or empathy for the characters and events feels scarce to the point of most bland superhero films. However, one will feel wonder; wonder at the formalistic achievement, loud percussion, and intense action that melt into a giant experience that, rightfully, earns its place on a big screen.
Before ending this review, it should be said that this review and final rating is, in a certain way, incomplete. The film deserves a rewatch to examine how knowledge of the film’s full plot will possibly make events clearer, lines clever, and the audience engaged. But as the world reaches nearly 1 million deaths caused by a deadly pandemic at the time of this writing, the film’s merit unfortunately does not warrant a venture beyond the confines of your household. If theaters and studios really wanted to open theaters with a blockbuster that has a clear story, emotional stakes, and intrigue, perhaps, as the teaser trailer before the film began alludes to, they should have waited until December 18, 2020.
3/5 STARS