Tenet: Trust Your Gut
It’s been a weird year for movies, to say the least. Theaters have been closed for months, many of which have shut down due to major losses. Yet even in the midst of the unknown, Tenet seemed to serve as some kind of milestone for theaters. Regardless of its ever-changing release date, the blockbuster stood to be the savior of cinema. So now that it’s out, does it live up to the hype?
Early on in the film, a scientist says to the lead character, “You don’t have to understand it, you just have to feel it.” This statement seems to not only encapsulate the entire film, but also Nolan’s entire filmography. For many, he has become a modern-day Hitchcock, where each film promises a twist bigger than the last. Yet along with some type of twist, each film battles with a common subject: time.
Tenet is no different as Nolan’s obsession with time reaches a new peak. Everything in Tenet is about time, past, present, and future. Yet the earlier quote about feeling over understanding hits harder than ever before in Nolan’s latest project. Since the film’s limited release, many who have seen the film have harshly criticized its sound mixing due to a significant portion of the dialogue being almost incomprehensible. Nolan as a writer has historically been extremely expositional in his characters’ dialogue. Conversations in his film exist solely to explain plot points and advance the storyline. Therefore, an inability to hear much of the dialogue can lend to a rather confusing watch. However, there’s one thing that Nolan finds much more important than dialogue, and that’s how the film feels. This isn’t the first time he has met criticism for his sound editing, The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar met similar critiques. Yet in all these films, Nolan in some capacity relies on feelings the film evokes in an audience to advance the story and give it value.
Tenet finds Nolan at his best and his worst all at different times. His struggles with character development are evident in the fact that he feels very little need to give characters much depth outside of a dead wife or girlfriend (trust me, 6 of his movies use this trope), and in Tenet while there may be no dead wives, there is still very little to make us care about anyone outside of the suave performances by John David Washington and Robert Pattinson. However, outside of the characters and plot, there are plenty of incredible action sequences to keep audiences on their toes.
I think over time Tenet will garner die-hard fans as well as harsh critics. This assessment falls in line with most things Nolan has created. While I certainly do not feel this is Nolan’s best movie, I do find it ever-fascinating to watch an indie-turned-blockbuster director attempt to satisfy both classifications. Tenet feels a bit too much like a small plot forced into an oversized machine. This does not mean that it is worth dismissing. When all is said and done, Nolan explores worlds many of us would never think to imagine.
So in the midst of the ongoing struggles of this pandemic, maybe go to a showing of Tenet if you feel safe. But if you don’t, while the sheer size of the movie’s action is definitely meant for the big screen, it may not hurt to have some subtitles and volume control when you watch it at home.
Suggested Nolan viewing before seeing Tenet: Memento and Inception