When I watched Tenet…
Been thinking whether I should weigh in on Tenet or not, there has after all been so much written about it that it doesn’t really need my opinion of it and its complexity. Because yeah, if you didn’t understand that yet from this being a Nolan film and all, it’s hella confusing. And I’m not just saying it to be like ‘oh yeah that chap Nolan’s made a confusing film go watch it’, I’m saying it because I’ve seen it twice and I’m still not 100% certain what happens in it.
Real talk though. I haven’t been to the cinema since January, so when this finally premiered and I skipped to the cinema, twice might I add, once for a normal viewing and once for an iMax viewing, because this being Nolan it was made to be seen in iMax, I was like a little child at Christmas. Admittedly, if you don’t feel it’s safe to go, then absolutely don’t do it, but if you do, please support your local cinema, they need you right now.
Okay, so I’m honestly relieved I got to see this with Swedish subtitles, even though my english is pretty good, I don’t think I would have been able to really follow everything if I hadn’t. This film is loud, and when I say loud, I mean so much so that the first screening in iMax scared the living daylight out of me, and I had seen it once before that. I’ve read online too that some native English speaking people struggled without subtitles, because Nolan’s been like ‘higher the sound mixing so loud guys, people will have to strain their ears to hear what’s going on’. It’s a decision on his end, he wants you to lean forward and experience it all. At least I think it’s a conscious decision on his part, but what do I know?
I read somewhere in a review that this film feels like a Bond film for physicists and I’m inclined to agree with that statement. I mean I don’t actually mind the first half of this film, it’s the part that makes enough sense to me so that I can actually follow it. It’s essentially Nolan’s take on a Bond film, a heist film and a spy film, all good stuff and easy to follow. This part is pretty straightforward, or as straightforward as a film can be about time travel and non linear timelines. Also, it’s not called time travel, it’s called Inversion, which in this film is a whacky take on the concept, but you know what Nolan? It’s time travel, they do go backwards in time after all and that equals, yes you heard it, time travel!
This film has a cool opening sequence though. Nolan likes those doesn’t he? I’m thinking Inception, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, he pulls you straight in with them. In this one, John David Washington is at an opera in Kiev, to do, well honestly it’s a little unclear, but he’s there to stop the bad guys and do some cool shit to the backdrop of Ludwig Göransson’s thundering music. This one event sets him off on a journey, a journey to find himself and become the hero he was all along. Jokes aside and all that, it’s kind of like that, except he’s a spy and cool and it’s less tropey I guess, but also kind of just like any other film that sets their hero on a quest.
He’s awesome though, like definitely my favourite part about this whole film. He’s so charming and alluring and every day like in many ways, and so goddamn cool, particularly in that scene in a kitchen where he gets creative with a cheese grater, yep, I bet that put an image in your head that I’m not going to comment on and allow your imagination to go places. He’s funny too, and while there’s not a lot going on with his character, he has a sort of modern fairy tale chivalry going on about him that makes him very watchable, as well as hinting towards a deeper character underneath everything. And also, it just makes me want an actual Bond film with the man. Ahh imagine that, he’s the Bond we wanted all along, soz Daniel Craig.
Then we have his much similar alluring friend and colleague, Neil, or Robert Pattinson as the internet knows him by. God, what a man he is and who would have thought he’d be a perfect fit in an action film? Not me, and I like Rpattz! JDW and Rpattz have so much fun in this film, and I just wished they had more scenes together because they are the kind of duo that just makes you crave more. Also side note, I’m not sure Nolan is aware, but he has essentially created a modern version of a tragic love story that kind of makes you want to weep for days. I’m sure he wasn’t even aware of it and thought he made a high concept, saving the world type film where dudes shoot stuff and look cool in suits. Then the people on the internet decided that he in fact made a River Song 11th Doctor storyline where two people experience their relationship from different places in time. Aaahh tragic indeed.
Another thing I can’t make up my mind about is whether there is so much exposition in this film or whether there is actually not enough of it. A lot of Nolan’s films do rely on that concept, like Inception and Interstellar, but the difference with Inception for example is that Adrienne works as a stand in for the audience so when Cobb explains to her what’s going on, it’s done so more for our benefit. This film doesn’t have that and I think it suffers from it. The first part of the film does rely on this, only the issue is that the information is dumped on you mixed together with some other information that you’re like okay this is important. Like that goddamn painting which after some time loses its meaning and you’re left thinking, well what about that painting? The information dump becomes confusing because the explanations are halfhearted at best and have Clémence Poésy (a stand in for Bond’s Q) say things like ‘don’t try to understand it, just try and experience it’ or something like that. Gee thanks for the tip Q, I’ll do just that.
But as I have already said, first half is a little confusing, but I do understand what’s happening. I start to lose the plot completely when the half point mark hits. Here, they rely on you as an audience to remember that confusing and slightly strange dialogue from the beginning of the film to fill in the blanks of that’s happening here. I have seen this scene twice and I genuinely think it’s really hard to follow what’s actually going on though. On screen people are running around being stressed and JDW is unravelling a little here and when it’s kind of explained what’s happening it’s hard to know what to focus on and what to look at. All in all, it’s really frustrating. If someone were to ask me what happened I could explain it to you, but if someone wanted some details or asked me why or just any other specific question I’d be like ‘mate google it, I don’t know.’
The other question I keep asking throughout this film is, but does it work though?
And it doesn’t really matter, does it? But looking at other films that are about time travel with similar themes, I either feel like I buy into the concept that I’m not fully getting but can understand enough that I don’t question it, or I don’t care enough to point to its faults. The issue with Nolan is, and this is prime Nolan, is that he’s always on about making everything so goddamn grounded and realistic, while his films aren’t. Do you get where I’m coming from? Take Inception, I love that film, it’s the best Nolan film (I will take no arguments), it’s about dreams, so no one can argue with whether this is true or not. Interstellar is based off some sort of physicists idea about worm holes and the third dimension and it’s also about things we can’t yet prove whether they are true or not. But this one, it feels like it borrows from every genre whilst creating its own thing that feels very recognizable to the audience, it is at its core a spy film with a whacky concept. But the whole inversion thing throws a curveball to the audience and you start to go, errm this doesn’t work, because you’re not given the proper information to fully understand it.
Or, I guess you either understand it completely or you’ve stopped caring about it and are just there for JDW’s performance. Perhaps. But basically, this film is inaccessible and it frustrates me enormously.
Which is also why the third act of the film suffer immensely because of these decisions. Don’t get me wrong, the last part is beautifully shot and the world building that’s been done is fascinating. Nolan’s made someone throw money at this sequence basically, this and the scene where they crash an actual plane, because why not? The issue is that by now I’ve kind of lost the plot and the third act feels somewhat hollow and confusing and the stakes that are meant to feel huge, feel minor instead. Three things are happening all at once, except no one really knows what anyone is supposedly doing, except maybe when it comes to Kat, but she’s a different issue all together. You watch this invisible force, an enemy which feels non threatening, and they kind of have to feel scary, because the stake of the whole world is at play, only you’re like okay cool, what’s happening? Everything is muddled and confusing and Neil and The Protagonist, yes this is what JDW a little arrogantly has been ‘named’ in the film, are wearing masks while the clock is ticking down to BOM. This part is basically Inception on crack.
At some point it feels like Nolan just went ‘nah I don’t even understand what is going on so why should you?’ It relies so much on spectacle this film, spectacle and experience, and while those two are impressive, plot, characters and coherence have been forgotten on Christopher Nolan’s writing desk, where I imagine he has a huge leather chair with stacks of books about TIME piled on every available surface.
This is turning really lengthy and I’m realising it sounds like I’m just piling it onto poor Nolan. Which I’m not. I don’t actually dislike this movie, there is just so much to pick up on that I can’t help but doing so. Okay, one last thing then before I leave you.
Let’s talk about women Nolan. This man, for all his greatness, really cannot write women. I’m sure he isn’t interested in them and that’s precisely the reason his women are either dead, or dead mothers, or dead girlfriends or damsels in distress. Elizabeth Debicki suffers the same treatment as his prior female characters, and while she’s possible a little more fleshed out than most, it’s not by much. And onto the bad guy of this film, this is in no way criticism of Keneth Branagh, but I do feel he’s been seriously miss-cast in this and that kind of bothers me a bit too.
Anyway, if you’ve made it this far I hope I haven’t made you not want to see this film. If you just go in with the mindset that you don’t want to understand what’s actually going on, it can still be a hoot. I mean it does have Rpattz and that should be incitement enough to see it I think.
Or you might just be one of those clever people who did get this film and for that I salute you, nicely done. I’ve given this film 3 stars myself which I feel is fitting for it as I don’t hate it nor love it, but it’s been on my mind for ages, and for that it deserves to be seen and talked about.
