After lockdown and into a restricted near, but not as we are used to, normality the ambitious, cerebral, eclectic and sophisticated film Tenet was not what I expected. Sure, there are the familiar tropes of social-distancing and self-isolation that colour the film, particularly at the beginning but, these invariable necessities of our times, are soon lifted with the ensuing action, effects and multilayered plot that twists and turns and involves some intriguing concepts that are certainly fodder for culture-starved brains.
Christopher Nolan's approach to film making is intrinsically Surrealistic and, as in Inception or Interstellar involves a Sci-Fi element or deals with scientific/technological themes in engaging and thought-provoking ways. What is engaging, from a Sci-Fi perspective is not the oddity of time reversal; run the film backwards and you've got an instant time-alteration/time-travel effect that is pretty much a standard technique in cinema; it's the kinetic reversal of objects within forward-traveling time and the multi-layering of forward traveling time with reverse time and their interaction that impresses so much.
The film is labyrinthine, but this is its appeal rather than off-putting obfuscation. The film is very clever rather than a substandard film that constantly tries to inform the audience how clever its creators are. At times you get the impression that "Tenet" employs 3 or 4 "realities" all altered through time-alteration, juxtaposed and interacting with each other for, at times endearing or baffling moments. Despite at times, mind bending results, this complexity works, aided by action, mystery, character-development and intriguing effects.
Whereas John David Washington's character, the Protagonist, seems rather aloof and his side-kick Robert Pattison's Neil is vaguely engaging but not bet much better, the 2 performances that really stand out are Kenneth Brannagh's Andrei Sator and Elizabeth Debicki's Kat. Brannagh's character is menacing and thoroughly despicable as a powerful, sadistic arms-dealer who is recieving arms from the future, he even manages to deliver convincing, moral ambiguity when he informs the Protagonist about his tortured past. Debicki's Kat is essentially a love interest for the Protagonist. However she plays a beautiful, intelligent and sophisticated art dealer, intrinsically emotionally tortured and controlled by Sator, with both sensitivity and intelligence. Her moments of vulnerability are evocative and at odds with her tall elegant presence, where she walks around like a femme-fatale for intellectuals. She too, despite her vulnerabilities proves to be morally ambiguous.
Dimple Kapadia also impresses as Priya, an arms dealer who poses as the wife of an arms dealer! She is a little like the Oracle from the Matrix Trilogy, her conversations with the Protagonist give insights into the causation of the time-altering phenomena that they experience and the way ahead for Washington's character. Their reflections on Washington's direction to finding out what is causing this time-traveling phenomena and it's salience to the present, are symbolically reflections on the actor's role and the connection of theatre/cinema to real-life. This metaphoric duality and its interplay is explored throughout the film as an artistic aside to the ensuing sci-fi/spy drama and the character development of the protagonists!
If I've made Tenet sound very impressive then that was my intention and it certainly is. If you haven't seen it, watch out for a car chase in reverse-time and a gradually unfolding, labrythine visual narrative that takes you back to the beginnings of the film before you enter the absurd and audacious finale!
However, Tenet isn't brilliant it's just really good. Excellent even, but not a classic Sci-Fi that will live in the public's imaginations for decades to come. It's difficult to pinpoint why that is when there's so much wonderful, awe-inspiring artistry unraveling before your eyes. However, I can think of a one or two reasons.
Firstly, Tenet is compromised by a lack of scale; thoroughly understandable in our restrictive times, but films such as the Matrix Trilogy and 2001 A Space Odyssey deliver the scale as well as the effects and thought-provoking cinema. Whereas beautiful locations were shot they were merely intriguing backdrops to action, a complex plot and stunning effects. A greater exploration of location and the scale of the films ambitions, to take in several continents could have been explored visually, in more impressive ways. Cultural ambiguities, contradictions and differences could have been explored in more detail and given more time for the camera to allow our senses to take in the marvelous and culturally distinct, locations that the film, only partially exploited. Some may argue that the film is already densely packed and convoluted enough without bringing disparate cultures and visual explorations of locations into play. They would have a decent point.
Secondly, and more intrinsic to the film, is the inability of the film to clearly communicate the relevance of the algorithm to the temporal distortions that are, apparently caused by its operation. Quite how does a computer program alter time? It's an interesting concept, but how a computer program achieves such an ambitious and fundamental alteration to reality/nature isn't explained. That would be fine if the film left such explanations to the imagination of the viewer, however because Nolan employs such scientific exactitude to his work I was left wondering why the link between AI and reality hadn't been established.
Furthermore, explanations to other quasi scientific phenomena were silent. Just how did Sator's death not cause the end of the world. The filmic explanation by Kat after she killed Sator was that The Protagonist and Neil "found a way"! Maybe I missed something, after all the complexity of the film is at times, mind boggling, however the explanation did seem facetious to say the least. Lastly, I hungered for an explanation to the resolution of the climactic finale when a subterranean nuclear weapon was diffused by the breaking up of an algorithm. This resulted in a small explosion. Once again I may have missed some salient occurrence, however wouldn't an explosion set off the nuclear device? And how does diffusing a bomb by breaking up an algorithm cause an explosion?
The very fact that I loved the film and I am left asking questions may, for some, be a clear indication of the film's artistic and intellectual potency. However, I think I may have found some important weaknesses to an otherwise wonderful film. The plot twist at the end where The Protagonist finds out that he developed the time-altering algorithm in the future to attempt to prevent World War 3 and employed the other characters to help him achieve this because of their individual skills, was a fun twist and made any flaws almost forgivable.
After the trials and hardship of lockdown, the difficulties of self-isolation and the oddity of a pandemic, Tenet gives hope that the arts can survive and even flourish despite the invasive limitations that we all have to endure. Flying in the face of economic collapse and persistant anxiety about Covid and its potential spread, Nolan and Co. pursue an aesthetic dignity that appears to turn difficult phenomena into creative opportunity, delighting in a difficult yet accessible artistic work. I can't wait to see what Nolan and his team of collaborators dream up next. It may well turn out to be the classic, memorable, thought-provoking and accessible film that he so desires to create and, in my opinion, without doubt, can achieve.
Simon.
August/September 2020
