Reviewed by Victor Rebikoff.
Director: Christopher Nolan, Warner Bros, PG 150 Minutes.
With successful movies as the Dark Knight trilogy to his credit it is disappointing to see sci-fi supremo Christopher Nolan directing what is a bizarre and nonsensical blockbuster encapsulating a time-shifting world of international intrigue.
In the opening scenes patrons are first introduced to the lead character-a CIA agent known as The Protagonist (John David Washington – ‘Blackkklansman’)-as he joins in an assignment to thwart a terrorist attack in Ukraine ultimately to retrieve some stolen plutonium.
The story then switches to the Protagonist being recruited by a secret organisation and told that the word “Tenet” will open many doors before infiltrating a facility where he learns of objects being able to move backwards in time.
After teaming up with British agent Neil (Robert Pattinson – ‘Twilight’) the Protagonist finds himself penetrating the compound of an Indian billionaire whose wife Priya (Dimple Kapadia- ‘Rudaali’) informs him of a time-reversing technology acquired by a ruthless Russian strongman.
To get to the Russian Sator (Kenneth Branagh – ‘Dunkirk’) the Protagonist contacts his estranged wife Kat (Aussie Elizabeth Debicki – ‘Breath’) unaware that Sator does not trust either of them instead proceeding with his time-inversion device to go back in time.
Sator’s suicidal tendencies soon has him planning on using his plutonium to detonate a doomsday device while escaping with his time-reversing technology as the Protagonist and Neil try to stop him from causing catastrophic consequences for all of humanity.
Most filmgoers watching Nolan’s puzzling motion picture-which screens for about 150 minutes-will leave the cinema scratching their heads and feel dissatisfied at such a perplexing plot particularly the incoherent storyline that did not make much sense.
In many respects the complexity in ‘Tenet’ resembles Nolan’s convoluted epic ‘Inception’ with its insipid and meaningless narrative leaving some pleased at seeing the closing credits.
In Nolan’s movie and despite its overlong screening time the action scenes are more entertaining but appear disconnected to the rest of the storyline leading to an inconclusive conclusion.
Apart from the European settings the only highlights are the pleasing performances of Branagh, Debicki, Paterson and Washington-who is not as dynamic as his father Denzel. Following the promotional hype and having decided to see this movie the day after its opening it is interesting to note that there were only two people in attendance
Vic’s Verdict: 2 Stars
