Review by Brad Balfour
Director: Christopher Nolan
Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh
As cited by Wikipedia, a tenet is one of the principles on which a belief or theory is based. When Christopher Nolan’s latest film was announced as being titled “Tenet,” one wondered what principle or theory would be represented by the film. As the much praised and commercially successful director of “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” this Britisher brought a sense of gravitas to his reboot of the ultimate comic book detective, Batman. While the character was an ordinary human being, he was propelled by deep philosophical and psychological notions which provided a rationale that made this saga one which transcended the typical caped crusader character study.
Nolan has done the same with his other movies whether it was with “Interstellar,” his space odyssey, or with “Inception,” his exploration of dreams and reality. In making “Dunkirk,” his historical drama, the director offered a Nolan-esque way by shifting viewpoints and time-sequencing, to experience Britain’s heroic retreat on the beaches of Dunkirk when superior German forces pushed the English into the sea at the start of World War 2. Nolan loves big ideas and expressing them in very unexpected ways — especially when it come to ideas about time. With that in mind, “Tenet” doesn’t disappoint.
On this occasion, he uses actor John David Washington — “The protagonist” — to be both the prime mover of the action and the one manipulated by the action. It’s only at the end of the film does the audience get a sense of what the narrative is all about. In a nutshell, Washington plays a CIA agent —he isn’t assigned a name — who joins a super secret team which can manipulate the flow of time in order to prevent planetary destruction by a device sent into the past by shadowy figures from the future who want to change events in their time by disrupting the past (which is our time).
In this lengthy, elaborate production, Nolan employs a script (co-authored with brother Jonathan) which doesn’t really cohere, providing as much confusion as enlightenment as to who the villains are and how they manipulate time to threaten the world. Notions of time travel and time manipulation make for the deepest ideas that propel some of the best — and sometimes the worst — science fiction. Here, the film offers a mix of the good and bad use of time travel conundrums to make for a film full of action… and some bluster.
Thanks to a talented cast (Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh among others), convincing performances help make sense of the often confusing action within the film’s framework. Using some amazing production techniques, time manipulation scenes were shot both backwards and forwards. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema shot it on 70 mm and IMAX; and thousands of extras were brought into play during filming.
“Tenet” might not be the film to draw audiences back to the theaters, but it makes us think about the challenges — and threats — of the future in a wholly different way. Maybe it also suggests that looking at things in a new way is a good thing to do at this time. And maybe, it also suggests that we need a new way to see the present.