An intricately woven story with exciting filmography and unusual cinematic techniques, Tenet is a perplexing story of inversion on a metaphysical level, a journey through the present, past and future. Tenet is a palindrome; a word which reads the same backward as forward and vice versa. For those of you who recognised this early it will help with your understanding of the film itself. The first insight we have into the movie’s narrative. You may notice on the poster that the title is also inverted vertically on the right of the mirror like divide through the centre of the page, again a small clue from the creators.
Based on the writing alone I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie despite the initial difficulty that surrounds grasping the science and the concept of the movie, as with all Nolan ideas. Sometimes this comes at the beginning of his features, sometimes at the end, but there are always hints throughout that you can pick up on that help to define what it is that’s being conveyed. I was especially delighted with the performance Robert Pattinson gave us throughout the movie. I actually felt that he was the star, despite John David Washington being the leading role. John; albeit pleasant to watch on screen, didn’t quite have the same x factor shall we say. The protagonist was however able to draw the viewer in with an innate ability to make us feel his anxiousness surrounding the problems he faced, along with the complexity of grasping what was occurring throughout.
What I found lacking was the realisation of the idea from paper to screen, but you’ll have to bear with me on this. The trailer gives away very little of the story, but does give a clue as to where it will lead. The action sequences were undeniably well thought out and mostly well directed, however I personally felt there was something amiss with some of the segments. From my observations some of the scenes were in disarray. Most of the feature was amazing; at one point I heard a gasp in the cinema! But there were times where it seemed rather convoluted and badly pieced together. It could simply be that the sequences were filmed in a different way to that which you see, which will make more sense once you can appreciate what it is that I’m referring to. Even if I was to take that into account though, I couldn’t solidly pin point what it is that bothers me with this aspect of the movie. But again, there are some that were stunning so I can’t totally discredit it based on this.
Christopher Nolan’s work is often described as masterful. He’s a pioneer in some ways, often covering ideas that some find too complex to wrap their head around, and daren’t visit in their wildest dreams. But this is also one of the problems I have with his methodology. He is repetitive by nature, with both the structure of his movies and his writing style. Having watched 4 of his movies in the past few months I have come to find that there are a lot of striking similarities between some of his blockbusters that I just can’t see past. I would love to see more originality from this director – not every movie has to be like a lasagne! Layer after layer after layer. I find that by the time I’ve gotten to the bottom of the dish I’ve forgotten what I’ve eaten. Don’t get me wrong I do like something a little bit complicated plot wise in my movies, but when you lose the story to the execution of the story, you end up feeling a little lost with it all. Had I not watched the likes of Inception, The Prestige and Interstellar as of late, I would have potentially rated this a little higher at a 7, but I didn’t feel like this was an extraordinary, totally original piece of work from Mr Nolan.
There are some great Easter eggs throughout this movie that will make you wonder how you hadn’t sussed it sooner. Or if like myself you love to pay close attention to every little detail, you could have figured out the end before the storyline has really began. Trust your ears and your eyes on this one if you want to feel like a true detective. Definitely worth a close watch, or maybe 2 so that you can watch it to enjoy it the first time and a sweep with a fine tooth comb the second time to catch anything you missed.
A review by CB
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