Every piece of fiction demands as its price of entry some suspension of disbelief. Accept that a wardrobe serves as a portal between worlds … that aliens exist … that persons can speak with more wit and composure than we’re accustomed to expect … and the story promises to deliver some gem of insight or at least a rollicking good ride.
The suspension required in some cases is more taut than in others, and Tenet probably stretches things further than is plausible even in fiction. Although it probably will not facilitate any fresh insights into the actual character of reality, it still works as an engaging piece of entertainment by an accomplished visual storyteller.
The latest high-concept action flick from director Christopher Nolan, Tenet’s big idea is the possibility of “inverting” physical objects so they move backwards in time.
A top secret agency organizes around collecting such artifacts and doing whatever it takes to prevent an impending world-annihilating war. At this level, the film operates as standard action hero fare with a potentially mind-bending flare.
What is best about this set up are the ensuing visuals. Mashing together forward and backward chronologies creates ample latitude for innovative effects, and Nolan works some cinematic magic.
Another very good thing about Tenet, I am happy to report, is it is the first of Nolan’s movies that I could walk away from without a sense of existential vertigo or a splitting headache. (The director’s previous features include Memento, Inception, and Interstellar.)
Part of the reason for this, maybe, is that this time the central conceit probably just cannot be taken all that seriously.
Whereas concepts like a man with perception-distorting short-term memory loss, technology that manipulates consciousness, and even inter-dimensional extra-planetary travel are just conceivable enough for belief (or at least suspended disbelief), reversing the basic logic of causality pushes plausibility just that little extra too far.
Effects typically follow their causes, a scientist tells our hero, but sometimes it is just the opposite. Causes can result from their effects.
This is exactly the sort of potentially mind-blowing suggestion that has made Nolan his name. For many, though, I suspect this bold foray into fundamental philosophy will stride right across the line from just-imaginable into the innocently inane.
Indeed, for all its multi-million dollar blockbuster pretensions, the film does not (at every moment) take itself all that seriously. Don’t try to understand it, the same scientist counsels the hero (and us), just feel it.
This seems about right. As a serious engagement with the philosophy of causality or the theory of time, it is probably safe to say that this film is not making any real contribution. But considered simply as a big budget foray into action-packed good fun, the conceptual incoherence really does not diminish much from what it seems intent to do.
So, if you find it’s the end of the week, you don’t mind a little impressively ponderous gibberish, and all you’re really looking to do is feast on some popcorn and eye-popping cinematic spectacle, Tenet should be just the ticket.