Today’s quick review: Tenet. A CIA agent (John David Washington) is recruited by a shadowy organization to help deal with a new threat: objects that travel backward through time, sent by someone in the future as part of a war on the past. The agent tracks the objects back to Sator (Kenneth Branagh), a Russian arms dealer. To get the answers he needs, the agent enlists the help of Sator’s wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), who wants to escape her husband.
Tenet is a sci-fi action thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Tenet takes a seemingly simple idea—bullets that travel backward—and spins it into an intricate and mind-bending story. The protagonist finds himself in the middle of a where cause and effect are reversed, physics is turned on its head, and secrecy is his only weapon. Tenet’s ambitious story makes it an interesting watch, but not a very accessible one.
Tenet’s premise is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it opens up an entirely new space for the movie to explore. Tenet’s plot twists take full advantage of its time-twisting premise, turning the entire story into an elaborate puzzle. The action scenes are similarly perplexing, shaped by the presence of bullets firing in reverse, debris that reassembles itself, and assailants who already know how the situation is going to play out.
On the other hand, Tenet’s premise makes it incredibly hard to follow. The film provides enough exposition for the audience to piece together what is happening, but just barely. The action sequences are flashy, but they have a steep learning curve, relying on causal tricks that run counter to the audience’s intuitions. The comprehensibility problems are exacerbated by a story that moves quickly and only rarely stops to let the audience catch up.
Apart from its complexity, Tenet’s other main weakness is its limited emotional arc. Where other Nolan movies like Inception, Memento, and Interstellar are built around a powerful emotional payoff, Tenet has the somewhat weaker story of Kat trying to get away from her abusive husband. The protagonist himself is an emotionally neutral character, making the story more of an intellectual exercise than a personal journey.
Tenet holds promise for the right viewer. The premise manages to turn time travel on its head, while the elaborate action scenes are a nice complement to the puzzling plot. But Tenet’s virtues are hidden behind a dense wall of confusion, making it a hit-or-miss watch that depends heavily on how much effort the viewer is willing to expend. Give it a shot when you’re in the mood for a unique puzzle. Steer clear if you want a conventional thriller.
For a more accessible mind-bending science fiction thriller from the same director, try Inception. For a more restrained Christopher Nolan film that experiments with the concept of time, try Memento. For a sci-fi thriller with a similar flavor of time travel, try Looper. For a minimalistic sci-fi movie that tackles the mechanics of time travel in depth, try Primer.
[7.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6723592/). I give it a 7.5 for a fascinating story with a steep barrier to entry.