Tenet: Movie Review

TENET opens with a massive senseless attack on a large music concert at an opera house in Ukraine. An unnamed CIA agent called “The Protagonist” (John David Washington) participates in some kind of rescue attempt, but he’s captured and takes a cyanide pill while being tortured. He later wakes up to find the pill was a fake, and the mission was just a test.

By passing the test, The Protagonist qualifies to join an elite band of good/bad guys out to save the world from an evil Russian oligarch named Andrei Sator, who can end the world by using time travel machines that can “invert the entropy of the world.” This gives our heroic protagonist the opportunity to travel in time.

The Protagonist and his trusty friend, Neil, travel from India, to Norway and a few other scenic locations in between to thwart the plans of Andrei, but they need help; so, enter Andrei’s wife, Kat. Kat has been trying to break free of her abusive marriage with Andrei for some time, but their son keeps them together.

Kat reluctantly partners with The Protagonist and Neil to bring down Andrei with the hope of keeping her son safe; not to mention, the entire world…

TENET’s story moves very quickly. Because of the pacing, the movie might take many viewings to figure out the plot. The sound, like many Nolan movies is also loud with often suppressed dia-logue; so, if viewers aren’t attentive, they’ll miss key points of dialogue. TENET’s sky-high budg-et only needs polishing the aforementioned areas. That said, there are a few sweet thematic nuggets including a mother’s devotion to her son and a stellar amount of intrigue that the character display.

TENET has a light humanist worldview about time travel, but there’s no hint of eternity, and the characters only have a materialist life, mitigated by frequent mention of saving the world, but that is only done by humans. For these reasons and depictions of heavy violence and some drug use, MOVIEGUIDE recommends extreme caution for teenagers and adults.