[Review] Tenet(2020) {7.5/10}

Written and Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film stars John David Washington (The Protagonist), Robert Pattinson (Neil), Elizabeth Debicki (Katherine), Dimple Kapadia (Priya), Michael Caine (Sir Michael Crosby), and Kenneth Branagh (Andrei Sator).

The plot follows a secret agent who learns to manipulate the flow of time to prevent an attack from the future that threatens to annihilate the present world. He must travel through time and bend the laws of nature in order to be successful in his mission.

Christopher Nolan loves playing with time and the fabric of reality. A majority of his films have featured mind-bending excursions through the fourth and fifth dimensions and Tenet is no exception. In tandem with his mind-bending agenda, Nolan is a big-picture person in a cinema climate at this point sorely deprived of them. While the actors are largely on board to serve the bewildering action, a spicily accented Branagh as the obligatory villain and Debicki as his depressed wife have quite possibly one of the worst marriages known to man, which makes even the backwards-speeding bullets look like light relief. Despite downplaying the sci-fi elements during the first half, this may be the most challenging of Nolan’s films to date when it comes to wrapping one’s mind around the concepts forming the narrative’s foundation: backwards-moving entropy, non-linear thinking, temporal paradoxes. The film contains some of Nolan’s most ambitious action sequences to-date but one wonders whether the plot density – a not inconsiderable obstacle for some who prefer not to devote their undivided attention for 2 ½ hours – might prove to be problematic. Washington is very good and shows multi-octave range, but many won’t recognize him. Post-Twilight, Robert Pattinson has kept a relatively low-profile while honing his craft and rebuilding his reputation. It goes without saying that Tenet is a must-see, even if it’s just so you can be a part of the conversation. Nolan has made better films, but Tenet is a culmination of his distinctive filmmaking, so it’s hard not to be impressed.

Tenet is now available on Digital and Blu-ray.