Speaking of back and forth: “Tenet”, the title of the film, reads exactly the same from the front and back. The meaning of this palindrome in the context of the work becomes clear when you watch the film. Not quite.
But after all, Christopher Nolan is known for putting his audience’s willingness to think and think to the test. That is his “principle” – so the German translation of “Tenet”.
As part of a Hollywood cinema calibrated for entertainment, the British director’s new film provides a cool diagnosis and prognosis of extreme conditions. He tells more seriously, cooler than before, if you will: appropriate to the times.
One can argue that there is no longer a character here who invites identification – not even the pithy villain, the Kenneth Branagh as a modern mixture of a vengeful Richard III. and jealous Othello there. Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki cuts a fine figure as the object of his lust.
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