Tenet review: Overcomplicated in some parts, painfully telegraphed in others

Christopher Nolan’s time-bending action flick Tenet boasts some flashy action setpieces, but the plot is overcomplicated and its characters are underdeveloped.

Possibly the most talked-about movie of 2020 (which,  all things considered, may not be a good thing) is Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, a sci-fi leaning action-thriller, which made waves over the past few months as Nolan very publically and aggressively campaigned for the film’s theatrical release, despite the health risks posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. After finally catching a screening of the film ourselves, we can’t say it’s worth a trip to the theatre – during COVID or otherwise.

The film stars John David Washington as “The Protagonist”, a former military man who embarks on a time-bending adventure to save reality from Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), a weapons dealer with a penchant for time travel and abusing his wife, Kat (Elizabeth Debicki). Along the way, he crosses paths with Neil (Robert Pattinson) and the duo set out on a globetrotting, mind-warping mission to save Kat and stop Andrei before he destroys all of reality.

At least, that’s what we’re pretty sure the film is about because Tenet is so determined to get in its own way with buckets upon buckets of twists and turns that it’s difficult to grasp any semblance of what the plot is actually about. We’re not saying that films can’t be twisty or complicated –  Nolan, of course, has made a name for himself with films like Memento and Inception that revolve around complicated plot devices – but Tenet is a different breed. Here, the confusion comes from the sloppiness of the filmmaking – we can’t help but feel like this is the first draft of a film that needed several more revisions before ever being shot.

The film moves from one scene to the next without letting the viewer catch up as to why we’ve suddenly switched locations, and so much expositional dialogue is inaudible (whether it’s because the characters are yelling over each other while on a high-speed boat or trying to talk through breathing masks) that we’re convinced Nolan was doing it purposefully to further trip up the audience. If that’s the case, it worked, because even when characters are just dumping exposition on The Protagonist (which happens much more often than we’d like) it’s just making things even messier than they already are.

The worst part is that the single piece of exposition that is made abundantly clear – which is that if you come into physical contact with your past self, bad things happen – is then immediately thrown out the window 20 minutes later when John David Washington gets into a full-on physical fight with his former self. While it’s admittedly an interesting fight to watch, especially because you as the viewer get to witness it from both points of view at different points in the film, it’s one of the few action setpieces where we truly understand both what’s going on in the fight, and what the purpose of the action is.

The rest of the (many) action setpieces are filled to the brim with time-inverted soldiers, weapons, and vehicles, but during almost all of them, we kept asking ourselves why is this fight taking place? What is the goal of the heroes in this scene? What are they trying to do? Who are we supposed to be rooting for? It’s a level of discombobulation on the side of the viewer that makes even the action scenes difficult to watch or care about because we have no stakes in what’s going.

The only time we do know what’s going on in Tenet is when Nolan is telegraphing what we assume are supposed to be the emotional scenes from a mile away – everything about Elizabeth Debickis’ character (despite her commendable performance) is as predictable and by-the-numbers as it is archaic and one dimensional. Her entire character motivation and personality can be summed up in “mom”, and there is no depth to the woman whatsoever, which is again frustrating because we’re supposed to believe that The Protagonist is willing to risk the future of the entire world to go back and save this woman from her abusive husband.

Although said husband (played by Kenneth Branagh) does get a little more depth to his character, it’s not much at all, and he might as well sport that hokey Hercule Poirot mustache so he can twirl it while tying Elizabeth Debicki’s character up to be left on the train tracks. The dynamic between the two of them is so incredibly frustrating because it’s supposed to be what gets us to care about the action in the film, but it’s insultingly archaic to the point where you knew what dialogue was going to come out of Branagh’s mouth before he said it himself.

John David Washington’s character, the Protagonist, doesn’t suffer from the same eye-roll-inducing predictability, but that’s only because we know virtually nothing about his character, and not in a fun, mysterious James Bond type way. When we say we know nothing about his character, we mean we know nothing – not who he is, not what he stands for, not why he’s doing what he’s doing – in fact, the only thing we do know is that he likes diet Coke. We wish we were joking.

He spends the movie stumbling from scene to scene, having information fed to him and still seeming in over his head and inaccessible. The only reason the audience has to root for him is that he’s there and that he’s at odds with the man who wants to end all of time. It’s a shame because John David Washington has shown time and again that he’s a stellar actor, ready and able to tackle a high-brow project like this, so for him to get such a flat, nothing character, is dismaying, to say the least. In all honestly, Washington deserved better.

Far and away the most likable character in the film is Robert Pattison’s Neil, but that’s more of a comment on Pattinson’s magnetism and ability to light up a room as opposed to a compliment for the film’s writing, which is again, flat as a board. There’s a sort of twist in the end regarding his character that we won’t spoil here, but we can’t help but wish that the concept surrounding the twist had been explored or set up more consistently in the earlier parts of the film because it would’ve provided for a much stronger emotional payoff when the ending finally comes along.

When it comes to the rest of the cast, we can’t help but feel that each and everyone one of them is woefully underused. If the protagonists of the film get such stale writing, we’re sure you can only imagine how the supporting players fare – most of them are reduced to walking, talking exposition dumps who only exist to help taxi Pattinson and Washington from one location to another. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Himesh Patel, Fiona Dourif, and Clémence Poésy are all brilliant actors who deserve much better than filling roles that could’ve been played by literally anyone. Michael Caine and Dimple Kapadia fare a little better – there’s at least some semblance of a personality in each of their characters, but on the whole, the ensemble cast is woefully overqualified for the meager roles they play.

In the end, we can’t in good conscious recommend that you see Tenet – certainly not in a pandemic, and maybe not even after the global health scare has drawn to an end. Although the action scenes are certainly flashy and take some interesting risks, the plot is so needlessly complicated and the characters so painfully stale that the film just isn’t worth your time – no pun intended.

Have you seen Tenet? What’s your favorite Christopher Nolan movie? Sound off in the comments below.