Anthony's Film Review - Tenet (2020)

Tenet is both an exciting thriller and a cerebral film that, in a pleasant way, requires a lot of attention...

Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan, is a movie that melds two genres: espionage thriller and science-fiction. This combination of genres isn't really all that unique, but what's definitely extraordinary is the sci-fi concept that is thrown into the mix. I'll describe that a bit more later, but for now, let me mention two things about the end result. First, Tenet is a riveting espionage thriller that has great heart-pounding action. Second, Tenet is one of the most confusing movies I have ever seen, and I am usually not easily confused by complex movies. The latter is not a jab at the movie at all. On the contrary, it's another reason I praise this movie.

I think the best way to review this movie is to digest it piece by piece. I'll start with the core of the film. This is an espionage thriller with the elements that you would expect, including a villain with a diabolical scheme, agents following a path of clues towards the villain, meetings with shady characters along the way, and death-defying action sequences. All of this by itself can work just fine. It would be an action thriller that looks standard while packing more punch than the average action movie. If you love this kind of action movie, you can't go wrong with this part of Tenet.

Now let's add the element of science-fiction. It involves a bizarre phenomenon with time: inverted time. In other words, time going in reverse. One action scene early on involves hand-to-hand combat between two characters, with one of them performing actions that are reversed from what you would see when the action is played forward. The first time I saw this, I was both mesmerized as well as intensely curious about the explanation of this. I could not even guess what the explanation was. Ultimately, the film does point out what is going on, explaining this scene and others. Until then, expect to be confused multiple times during the movie. But to fully enjoy the movie, you have to look at those moments as opportunities for mental stimulation, rather than obstacles that get in the way of the movie.

What also gives the film a feeling of vagueness is how the plot and characters are presented with less detail than you would expect. Instead of direct introductions of characters and presentation of story details, you see the movie just go right into the story while the audience is trying to catch up on who's who and what's what. It's clear that the movie centers on John David Washington as an unnamed agent simply known as the Protagonist and Robert Pattinson as an agent named Neil. It's not obvious which intelligence agencies they hailed from, and it's only somewhat obvious that The Protagonist is now part of an organization called Tenet. There are really only three other key characters in this story: an Indian arms dealer named Priya (played by Dimple Kapadia), a Russian arms dealer named Andrei Sator (played by Kenneth Branagh), and Sator's wife Kat (played by Elizabeth Debicki). Again, their introductions are subtle enough that paying extra attention is required to avoid getting a bit lost.

Let's talk about the action scenes. They are done quite well, so that each melee attack and gunshot keeps you on the edge. (And if, like me, you watch this movie while sitting in a cinematic motion chair like the D-Box, you'll REALLY be riveted.) The first action scene of the movie, involving a terrorist attack at an opera house, is actually the first scene of the movie. You may have already seen this scene when it was presented as the film's trailer in December 2019. It's still cool to see it again, though. And then there's another favorite action scene of mine, involving a car chase to box in a target vehicle where a quick heist is performed. It is amazing to see all of the intense action while all vehicles of the convoy are still moving pretty quickly. Then the inverted time element gets thrown in, and you'll once again have to pay close attention to see if you can figure out what the hell is going on.

Regardless of how much you can understand what's going on or how confused you may be from it, there's no denying that Tenet is a nicely written and well-directed action sci-fi thriller. The whole ride for me was a pleasant one, whether I was engrossed in the action or trying to make sense of the concept of inverted time. Given how complex this movie is, I would suggest that, if you are a movie watcher who can get easily confused by a movie like this, you either watch this movie twice or read an explanatory article about the movie after watching it once. But no matter what, Tenet is a movie that works. It will certainly please the most cerebral of movie lovers, and it could still excite the more casual movie watcher. The experience is satisfying either way.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Tenet, visit the Internet Movie Database.