5 Years Later, Christopher Nolan's Most Controversial Movie Has One Redeeming Quality

"Back in 2020, the word on Tenet when it was released was that, while it had the signature Nolan flair, it was both incredibly complicated and lacked an emotional core. The notion of Nolan as a cold, calculating filmmaker has followed him throughout his career, and it's at least somewhat earned. He's arguably a clinical filmmaker, someone who seems to prioritize precision over naked emotion."

"And though it remains divisive five years later, it's that fascination with time that also makes Tenet one of the most lovely, emotional stories Nolan has ever told. While there's certainly plenty of real estate devoted to temporal pincer movements, the beating heart of this movie comes from the relationship between John David Washington's unnamed Protagonist and Robert Pattinson's Neil, a man who first emerges as his British handler."

"Unfortunately, the deep heart of Tenet is something you can only fully appreciate the second time you watch it. The movie, which is set in a world where people can move either forward or backward in time and is focused on a battle against the future, is hard to wrap your brain around no matter how many times you've seen it. What you learn about Neil, though, helps the movie's emotional dynamics come into complete relief your second time through."

Tenet released during the 2020 lockdowns and made a limited impression, despite prompting Nolan's move from Warner Bros. to Universal and his later Best Picture win for Oppenheimer. The film displays Nolan's signature precision while feeling incredibly complicated and initially lacking an emotional core. Nolan's filmmaking often prioritizes precision over naked emotion, and his long-standing obsession with manipulating time reaches perhaps its apex in Tenet. The film remains divisive five years later, but the time-fascination also produces one of Nolan's most emotionally resonant stories. The central emotional focus is the relationship between the Protagonist and Neil, which becomes clearer on a second viewing. Tenet's premise of forward and backward time movement and its battle-against-the-future plot make the narrative difficult to fully grasp on first viewing.

Read at Inverse