Review of the IMAX film 'Tenet' (2020)

Tenet is a science-fiction film created by Christopher Nolan. It is not only directed by him but written by him as well, just as Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017). The trailers for the film reveal little about the plot, same as the tag line 'Time runs out' that could mean anything before you watch the film.

The plot is extraordinarily inventive, such as the one from Inception was. It revolves, literally, around an unusual form of time travel. The unnamed secret agency where the unnamed protagonist works at discovers evidence of this activity and engages in a mission to learn what is it, who is using it and for what purposes. But in spite of this promising foundation, the plot fails because of two reasons: it is misleading and incoherent.

The plot is misleading right from the start, up to a point where American English is required to describe it: the film bullshits the spectator. Nearly all explanations provided at the beginning are proved wrong or useless later on – and then no amended explanations are provided. Take the trailer line: 'All I have for you is a word: Tenet. It will open the right doors, and some of the wrong ones too'. Soon after, the word really opens a door, one of a secret lab – and that is all. Whereas it is legitimate for a story to show characters making wrong conjectures as they investigate an enigma, showing only the wrong explanations confuses the spectator. What is that, a new marketing technique intended to make the spectator watch the film multiple times? Or does Nolan follow now the path of Shyamalan, and enjoys deliberately tricking the spectator into confusion as a childish way to assert his intellectual superiority?

The plot is incoherent later on, because paradoxes and plot holes arise. A paradox is always the biggest fault – what is the interest in watching who wins, when one of the sides can cheat? And no, acknowledging that it is a paradox doesn’t fix the problem – that is just the admission of being a cheater. Plot holes are also evident, and the fact of Nolan being an usual suspect on the matter makes it worst: the spectator gives up expecting explanations and disengages from the film. About half-length of the film the protagonists discover everything as much as a sudden as if the author himself told them off-screen, but bother not to explain any of it save for the concept of temporal pincer. Then they deal with backwards audio, and a moment comes where the palindromic quality of the word Tenet would really be useful to solve a communication problem – but instead we get a martial arts fight, as much spectacular at it is dumb. Then the film becomes a commando film about averting something 'worse than nuclear holocaust' which gets never fully explained or demonstrated at a lesser scale, so it is up to the spectator to do the author’s work and imagine it, or less tiresomely to be just as lazy as the author is and assume it is a generic Big Bad.

The solid part of the story is the relationship between Andrei Sator and his wife Kat. Kat refers changing his mind about his husband after watching another woman diving into the sea from his husband’s yacht. Who is this other woman? Depending of who she is, this could be paradoxical. Now, it would be unfair to assume, without proof, for the author to commit a fault as big as a paradox; but when it comes to Nolan you can count on him to do so – and actually be a brilliant twist for scholar nerds such as myself to appraise. The identity of this female diver would itself require an entire article to discuss, but I can explain why it matters in a single paragraph.

From Shakespeare’s Otello to Nolan’s Inception, we know that ideas infect minds – that some ideas have the ability to self-reinforce up to the point of dominating the mind and becoming self-fulfilling prophecies. But then, in fantasy and science-fiction stories where actual knowledge of the future exists, this steps up another level. From Shakespeare’s Macbeth to Frank Herbert’s Dune, there is the idea that the vision of the future actually creates the future. That some possible futures have the ability to influence their likelihood almost as if they had a will of their own to become real. Paradox-wise, Kat’s vision of the female diver is not a consequence of his husband being unfaithful, but of herself hating him – and then the vision reinforces her hatred, creating a different time-line. Brilliant idea you have there, mister Nolan – pity that you fail to script it without a paradox.

Script faults aside, where Nolan doesn’t fail is at directing. The film is undoubtedly spectacular, with excellent scenography and lots of people on-screen. The action scenes spare no money, though some of them are so complex that the spectator loses track of how many people are involved and where they are. As for the cinematography, it is excellent.

The IMAX format is unmistakable for its more squared aspect ratio. Its quality is noticeable, and worth to watch – the scenes at the Opera show hundreds of people at a time and still their faces are identifiable. However, the 'Optimized for IMAX theaters' logo is present in the credits – something that shouldn’t be in a fully IMAX-filmed film.

The music soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson is an electronic, theme-less one; much in the trend of the current century. Heavy on rhythm, the music helps to set the pace of the scene and keep the tension the director wants to have, but it lacks appeal. Hans Zimmer, you are missed.

As for the interpretation: It’s difficult to evaluate John David Washington’s interpretation, because he hardly delivers any – his face is as much expressive as one from a wax statue. Robert Pattinson is a bit more expressive, but equally emotionless. We have to wait for Kenneth Brannagh and Elizabeth Debicki for real acting, and they deliver – their talent and chemistry together sustain the film. Brannagh is particularly brilliant: his talented performance provides more believability to the film than the visual effects do. Also good the brief interpretation of Martin Donovan, and special mention to Michael Caine, in a brief but chameleonical interpretation that gets the spectator to disbelieve that the actor in from of the camera is him in spite of having his face.

All in all, a confusing and incoherent story whose interest is reduced to its spectacularity and some of the acting. 3 out of 5.

Title:	Tenet
Genre:	Science-fiction
Year:	2020
Nationality:	UK, USA
Color:	Color
Director:	Christoper Nolan
Writer:	Christoper Nolan
Cast:	Juhan Ulfsak, Jefferson Hall, Ivo Uukkivi, Andrew Howard, John David Washington, Rich Ceraulo Ko, Jonathan Camp, Wes Chatham, Sander Rebane, Martin Donovan, Clémence Poésy, Josh Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Dimple Kapadia, Denzil Smith, Jeremy Theobald, Michael Caine, Tom Nolan, Elizabeth Debicki, Laurie Shepherd, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Marcel Sabat, Julia-Maria Arnolds, Jack Cutmore-Scott, Himesh Patel, Anthony Molinari, Kenneth Branagh, Adam Cropper, Tony Christian, Jan Uuspõld, Kaspar Velberg, Sergo Vares, Rain Tolk, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Fiona Dourif, Henrik Kalmet, Sean Avery, John Orantes, Seb Carrington, Matthew Marsden
Producer:	Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
Executive producer:	Thomas Hayslip
Production designer:	Nathan Crowley
Cinematographer:	Hoyte Van Hoytema
Film editor:	Jennifer Lame
Casting:	John Papsidera
Art Director:	Toby Britton, Rory Bruen, Steve Christensen, Neville Dsouza, Liam Georgensen, Eggert Ketilsson, Jenne Lee, Anni Lindal, Justin O'Neal Miller, Benjamin Nowicki, Erik Osusky, Anthony D. Parrillo, Tiiu-Ann Pello, Kunal Sable, Triin Valvas
Set Decorator:	Kathy Lucas
Costume Designer:	Jeffrey Kurland
Music:	Ludwig Göransson
Running time:	150 minutes
Language:	English, Russian, Ukrainian, Estonian