‘Don’t try to understand it, feel it’ one character advises early on in Tenet, though Christopher Nolan would be kidding himself if he doesn’t believe his audience would at least try to pick apart the film’s mechanics. “Inversion” isn’t exactly time travel, unless one considers the way we move forward through time linearly in our own reality a form of it. Rather it is a way for objects and people to experience the natural flow of time in reverse, attempting to manipulate the past with the knowledge of the future.
After proving his resourcefulness and loyalty, a CIA agent given the moniker “The Protagonist” is recruited on a mission to track down the source of a technology that allows objects and living beings to pass backwards through time. To divulge any more specific narrative details would be to spoil some of Tenet’s greatest twists, especially some of which are essential to the progression of this fragile, intricate plot.
Christopher Nolan is no stranger to convolution in his mind-bending science-fiction movies, though where movies such as Inception can still be mostly grasped in a single viewing, much of Tenet escapes easy understanding even when the credits roll. A great deal can be gleaned in the sharing of ideas, interpretations and theories with fellow moviegoers that takes place upon exiting the darkened cinema, and indeed this might be what what will make the inevitable second viewing even more satisfying.
That the mechanics of this film remain compelling to contemplate and discuss long after finishing is a great accomplishment. That so much of this is due to the poor sound mixing of mountains of exposition with a booming, electronic score is a technical oversight on Nolan’s part, and negatively impacts the overall experience. When Tenet finally gets its DVD and Blu-ray release, subtitles may be its saving grace for many viewers.
With such dense plotting there is little room for characterisation, instead largely falling back on archetypes of espionage films. This is never so clear in as it is in the villain Andrei Sator, a spiteful Russian oligarch played by Kenneth Brannagh who dully fulfils every cliché we might expect from an antagonist of this ilk. Those who are given the opportunity to expand on their characters, namely Elizabeth Debicki as Sator’s wife Kat and Dimple Kapadia’s quietly intelligent Priya, relish each moment of development, bringing a touch of sensitivity to an often mechanical screenplay.
When it comes to the concept of inversion (likely the main draw for those enticed purely by the trailer), Nolan delivers with some of his most creative action set pieces yet. He eases us into the premise by first introducing us to inverted objects, demonstrated through guns catching bullets, and later inverted people who experience reality in reverse. There is something unsettling in watching a human being move backwards through time, defying gravity and jerking in unnatural movements. It is even more unnerving when they come into physical conflict with someone moving forwards, making these struggles all the more unpredictable. When the fight starts for us, it ends for the inverted combatant, and vice versa.
If this is hard to wrap your head around, you wouldn’t be alone. It isn’t a major spoiler to say that we witness some events twice, once moving forwards and a second time moving backwards, allowing us a more physical understanding of how inversion works in this universe. This is critical to the key events of the story and its driving philosophy, predicating itself on the fatalist principle that even as we fight the passage of time and manipulate it for our own purposes, we are still bound to our own personal timelines and destinies. Although our characters possess this knowledge, they possess an even stronger sense of urgency that motivates them to affect their own futures and the future of the world. In this way, Tenet allows the spirit of inspiration and ambition to overcome the presumed nihilism often inherent in deterministic philosophies.
Despite its slightly condescending tone, perhaps ‘Don’t try to understand it, feel it’ is one of the most important lines in the film. No one will be coming out of Tenet with a complete understanding of its plot on their first watch, and the earlier in the film one accepts this and simply lets the experience wash over them the more likely it is they will enjoy it. There is plenty to pull apart and nit pick, but to get caught up on that during the film might leave one missing out on some of the more obvious answers. There is always time for questioning the plot logic afterwards. Until then, Nolan’s strange, exhilarating mind is entertainment enough.
