‘Tenet’ Review: Dir. Christopher Nolan (2020)

So, the saviour of cinema is here; Christopher Nolan and his latest blockbuster Tenet, a $200 million-plus epic revolving around international espionage finally lands on screens after constant push-backs due to cinema closures because of the coronavirus crisis around the world. Our Tenet review below will let you know if that wait has been worth it.

Tenet review

Nolan is amongst some of only a handful of filmmakers who can ‘open’ a movie based on his name alone – regardless of cast to some degree – but we are in unchartered waters and these are no ordinary times, and with cinemas just about starting to reopen around the world, it is going to take something extra special to lure cinemagoers back into multiplexes to offer  up their cash. 

Luckily, Tenet manages to step up to the plate and largely knock it out of the park with its stunning action set-pieces – of which there are many – brilliant central performances and a blistering, well-paced, mind-fuck of a story that’ll keep you on your toes as the multi-layered plot progresses.

We open in a packed Kiev Opera House, and it is almost immediately clear that something very bad is about to happen. Nolan wastes no time in getting proceedings underway and introduces his main character – a CIA agent known simply as the Protagonist; John David Washington simply dazzling in his biggest role to date. 

The first set-piece is good enough to rival any Bond cold open, but adds an extra dimension to proceedings by throwing in all of his customary, immediately unexplainable stuff – like deadly bullets that can seemingly jump back on themselves. The Ukraine-set, though Estonia-filmed first few minutes are nothing compared to what follows, the story slowly starting to be extracted the baffling plot unravels. As with all Nolan films, its best not to know too much before going in – I’m not sure where to begin in explaining what happens in the first third of the movie anyway – but the story takes place over multiple continents, from London to Mumbai, India, Oslo, Norway, to the tropical seas off the coast of Italy, and to Tallinn in Estonia. 

Elizabeth Debicki is front and central to proceedings as Kat, a British mother of one and wife to the dastardly Russian oligarch, Sator (Kenneth Branagh), unhappy in her marriage due to the naughty billionaire’s evil hold over her, but we do know that the end of the world has something to do with what is to come.

Also on board for the ride is a superb Robert Pattinson as the rather normally-named Neil, a fixer in Mumbai who is brought in to help the Protagonist achieve his mission. 

That’s as far as I will take you plot-wise because, as I said, this is best experienced cold – and probably more than once. It is exactky the kind of movie you want to go back and rewatch again almost immediately after the credits roll the first time around.

For those that struggle with the plotline – most like I, will – just when you’re about to give up trying to figure things out,  there is a eureka moment just over half way through where things start to fall into place. It’s all completely interesting, totally absorbing stuff, Nolan once again messing with non-linear storytelling through the laws of physics and yes, time.

Related: Warner Bros. delivers one final ‘Tenet’ trailer ahead of its big release – Our Tenet review continues below

The music is loud and proud, sometimes overpowering the dialogue, Ludwig Göransson delivering a powerful score to rival anything that has come in any Nolan film before. As I said, the cast are all incomparible, stand-outs being the brilliant Branagh relishing his Bondvillain-esque role, and also Debicki in another huge calling card to the film world following her brilliant turn in Steve McQueen’s striking Widows redo a couple of years back. 

I’ve always been impressed with John David Washington, whether it be across the five seasons of the HBO show Ballers to Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman, and here he brings a superb leading man presence to his unnamed character along with a lot of underlying humour and dominance. A star-making role – and he gets to wear all of the best suits.

Nolan has hardly put a foot wrong since exploding onto screens twenty years ago with Memento, and he hasn’t here either. This is mind-bending, brilliant staged stuff – the master at his absolutel best, and I devoured every moment.

I do hate to say it, but Tenet probably won’t be for all. It is a challenging watch and does require a lot of commitment and my advice is to just go with it. 

It is the definitive example of a film to be seen in cinemas away from any possible distraction (on the biggest screen possibly, naturally). As event movies come, they won’t come much bigger than this – not this original anyway, and if there was ever a film to lure us back to dark rooms to embrace the big-screen, believe me, Tenet is that movie. A thought-provoking, massively complex, rewarding rollercoaster ride of film.

Tenet is released in UK cinemas on 26th August. It will then start to roll out worldwide.