Review | Tenet movie review: Christopher Nolan’s most daring work yet, high-concept espionage mind-bender exceeds expectations
- This exotic and cerebral story of intrigue may have you scratching your head at times, but it’s a big-screen spectacle that speeds along at a dizzying pace
- Robert Pattinson, John David Washington and Kenneth Branagh star, and it is the latter’s turn as a violent Russian billionaire that steals the show
5/5 stars
Happily, Tenet exceeds our already sky-high expectations. An exotic high-concept espionage tale that also feels like a summation of his work to date, it is undeniably the most audacious film of his career – which is saying something.
In the lead is charismatic BlackKklansman star John David Washington, who plays an unnamed spy – known only as the “Protagonist” in the credits. After a blistering opening, all set around a terrorist siege at a Ukrainian opera house, he’s recruited by a mysterious operative (Martin Donovan).
His mission concerns preventing “something worse” than World War III – a journey that sees him first travel to India to trace the origins of a unique bullet, teaming him up with a louche-looking Robert Pattinson as man-on-the-ground Neil.
The real prize is Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), a violent Russian billionaire who is somehow a “broker” with the future. The Protagonist’s way to Sator is through his near-estranged wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), the mother of his young son, who is desperate to escape his stranglehold. For his part, Branagh is sensational, a menacing, vile presence in every scene he’s in.