Christopher Nolan returns to cinemas this weekend with his highly anticipated epic The Odyssey, which has received some of the best reviews of his career. The film follows his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, and fans are eager to see how it ranks among his best works. While many celebrate Nolan's classics like The Dark Knight trilogy, Interstellar, The Prestige, and Inception, his 2020 time-inversion action film Tenet rarely tops fan lists.
There is good reason for that: Nolan has made better movies. However, Tenet is arguably his most underrated work and, for some, superior to his celebrated 2010 sci-fi film Inception.
Inception's Limitations vs. Tenet's Freedom
Inception is often considered Nolan's first blank-check movie, following the billion-dollar success of The Dark Knight. It blends grounded action with character drama, centered on the high concept of implanting ideas into dreams. The film was a massive hit and earned iconic status for its inventive visuals and Hans Zimmer's score. However, Nolan's pragmatism sometimes limits his imagination. The world-building is laden with rules, and deeper layers add even more restrictions. For a film set in the limitless world of dreams, Inception is overly concerned with setting rigid limits, which can make it feel cold.
Tenet takes a different approach. It is a similar high-concept sci-fi thriller, but Nolan removes the constraints and embraces fun. The 2020 film was held for release until cinemas reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic. It received mixed critical reception, with a 70% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to Inception's 87%. Audience scores are also lower: 76% for Tenet versus 91% for Inception.
Key Details of Tenet
- Director and writer: Christopher Nolan
- Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
- Synopsis: A CIA officer is introduced to a secret organization tracing objects traveling backward through time to prevent a world-threatening attack.
- Runtime: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Age rating: 12
- Rotten Tomatoes scores: Critics 70%, Audience 76%
- Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Now, or HBO Max
Why Tenet Deserves a Second Look
On first watch, Tenet can be bewildering and thrilling. The key to enjoying it is laid out early when a scientist tells the Protagonist: "Don't try to understand it. Feel it." Its espionage-heavy style evokes James Bond adventures, with time inversion as the fantastical hook. While time is a recurring theme in Nolan's work, here he simply explores how cool it looks when part of a fight scene moves backward. The plot is convoluted, but the original visuals are unmatched in Nolan's filmography.
The film features sequences that inspire awe, from a backwards fight scene to a highway chase and a climactic assault on an abandoned Soviet city. These set pieces have a sense of abandon that Inception lacks. While Tenet is less emotionally resonant, it is sillier, more bombastic, and camp. It features well-dressed movie stars saving the world from Kenneth Branagh's villain with a silly accent, driven by some of the most original visual spectacle of the last 20 years. The score by Oscar-winning Ludwig Goransson adds to the experience.
For those who struggled with Tenet initially, a rewatch is encouraged. Heed the scientist's words: don't try to understand it, just feel it. That is the Tenet way.
