Tenet review

Tenet movie review by Keith Metcalfe

I mentioned in yesterdays clip for "New Mutants", the other film I saw the same day, that it was the first time for me in a theater in approximately 7 months. As an interesting side note about theaters reopening, is that my local multiplex now does screen rentals for only $150. That's a really reasonable price if you have a birthday party, business outing, or really just anything with ten people, and can have a theater all to yourself playing any film that's out.  It's sort of a brilliant marketing idea, actually, and hope keeps theaters open through difficult pandemic times.

Christopher Nolan definitely deserves adulation for pushing the medium. His films are think pieces that no one would accuse of trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. That said, as good as a film is, when we aren't able to follow what is happening, it's more frustrating than enjoyable.

After I saw the film, I went home and read up on it. I found several reviews by people who explained the film, in detail, after they had watched it a few times. And as I read these, I went "Oh, that's what happened there." too many times for me to say the film didn't fail on some level.

The acting is good, as expected with people like Branaugh. And it did feel like a sci-fi James Bond, which I'd like to see more of, if done well. And it stimulated my brain, not just in trying to understand what was happening, but because it challenges us to really pay attention to what is being planned, and what happens when the plans go a bit off.  Those parts of the film make it well worth watching. As I watched it, I wanted to understand it better, and figure out what was going to happen. A bad film that is this confusing, I would have given up on in 15 minutes.

Just expect to be confused, and rewinding a little bit, isn't going to help. You need to see the film through. Read up on it. And maybe watch it again, before you will really understand it all.

Also of note is how hard it was to hear some of the dialog in the film. Shortly after the film's release Nolan made a statement where he said he "was shocked to realize how conservative people are when it comes to sound".  He compared it to films that visually make it hard to tell what's going on.  But so many of Nolan's films have characters who are purposefully hard to understand. Bane, the oxygen mask wearers in Dunkirk, and if I didn't see "Interstellar" in the very best theater, I'd assume the speakers weren't adjusted right and the music was overpowering the dialog. Nope. That was intended. In this film there are at least two scenes when characters are talking, and I think we are supposed to be able to hear them, but the engine noise, or the masks they are wearing make me expect subtitles.  Again, more frustrating than pleasing artistically.