Tenet Review: Don’t Shy Away Because You Have Heard It’s Confusing

Tenet is a movie that many people describe as confusing and hard to follow, but I didn’t find it to be that way at all.

Tenet is most definitely a Christopher Nolan film. You will recognize that from almost the moment you start watching it. There is a lot of action, probably too much dialogue, and it is visually stunning to watch. Each character is very well acted, and the story itself is unique and intriguing. 

Yes, it deals with a sort of time travel, but as long as you pay close attention to details, it shouldn’t hurt your brain to figure out. Honestly, I was dreading watching this movie because many people told me it would be very hard to understand. Family and friends said I would need to watch it multiple times in order to truly get what happened. For me? That wasn’t the case. 

Something else that people told me to do was to put on the captions. I am guessing because there is a lot of low dialogue and loud action. I set my sound bar from movie to voice, and that seemed to help because I didn’t have a problem hearing any of what was said. 

Tenet starts off with a bang — almost quite literally. There is an action packed opening sequence that immediately hooked me. However, what follows is about thirty minutes of over explaining and big unnecceary words. To put it bluntly, it is pretentious — typical Nolan I suppose. Don’t worry too much about that part though. You don’t need to know how things are inverted, you just need to know they are basically moving backwards. And that object AND people can do this. 

Both Robert Pattinson and John David Washington absolutely crush their roles. I love their chemistry together on screen and watching their relationship evolve as the film goes on. Elizabeth Debicki really makes the audience feel for her character, and I probably connected with her the most. Kenneth Branagh is a fantastic villain — and you all know how much I love a good villain. So he became one of my favorite characters within his first few minutes of screen time. 

Is Tenet Too Confusing?

I didn’t find Tenet to be overly confusing at all. In fact, as my husband and I watched it we both threw out theories when certain things were mentioned or shown and it turns out, we were correct with all of them. That isn’t to say this is a simple or predictable movie, because it isn’t. But if you listen closely and pay attention to visual clues, you shouldn’t have any issues understanding the film. 

The story and plot are actually super intriguing and quite clever. I kind of dig that the main character doesn’t even have a name. He is simply called The Protagonist. Time is moving forwards, and sometimes backwards, and sometimes both, but Nolan does a good job of making sure you know which way you are traveling at all times. 

Overall Thoughts

If you are shying away from watching Tenet because you have heard that it is too confusing and you need to see it multiple times — don’t! This movie may be involved, move fast at times, and use some very unnecessary big scientific words, but as long as you are able to catch subtle clues, this movie is a whole lot of fun! 

It is actually really hard to write a spoiler free review of this movie because the reason I love it so much is heavily influenced by the story line and conclusion. Who doesn’t love when a movie ends wrapped up in a neat little bow? Especially when you spend more than half the movie wondering if all your predictions are correct, and if it will pay off in the end. 

For a film that is two and a half hours long, it does a great job at keeping viewers interested. There is always so much going on, sometimes maybe too much for some. There is some great action, explosions, and a lot of really, really cool fight scenes.

Overall, Tenet is more than worth a watch. It is intriguing, playful at times, and ends up being a fantastic story once it all finishes up. Be sure to pay attention to the dialogue (remember, select voice on your sound bar if that is an option) and visual clues to avoid any unnecessary confusion. When you get to the end, you will understand the whole plot, and why it is such a great one. Overlook the pretentious thirty minutes, and this might just be one of your favorite movies of 2020!

About Tenet

Armed with one one word – Tenet – and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist (John David Washington) journey through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.

Tenet is available to take home on December 15th!