Reviews of Robert Pattinson’s performance as Neil in Tenet

**UPDATED: 22 Sept 2020:

The embargo’s been lifted and initial reviews for Tenet are in – slightly mixed, but as per usual I’m just going to focus on what they say about Rob – good and bad. I will update as the film is released worldwide – so here we go.

The Sweet

BBC: … with the aid of a louche British fixer, Robert Pattinson, who deserves his own spin-off film.

Total Film | Games Radar: Pattinson puts forward a strong case for his casting as Bruce Wayne, deploying dapper swagger as the capable and faithful Neil. 

The Guardian: As for Robert Pattinson’s raffish wingman, brilliant and dapper and apparently based on Christopher Hitchens? Pattinson is never less than watchable. And his affectations can be a welcome distraction. But he still just seems like some bloke who’s got drunk in Banana Republic’s scarf department.

The Evening Standard: Neil (Robert Pattinson; jauntily effete and utterly delightful).

The Globe & Mail: … shady-slick operative (Robert Pattinson) in the Tom-Hardy-in-Inception mould … He still has a perfect eye for casting (Pattinson and Branagh delight and surprise), and everything overwhelms in just the right way.

The New York Times: … Neil (a delightful Robert Pattinson) …  is also blessed to be playing off an equally unflappable Pattinson — their chemistry, rather than the sexless semi-flirtation between Washington’s hero and Debicki’s damsel, gives the film whatever romance it has.

Robert Pattinson one of the 5 best things about Tenet

Looper take a look at the 5 best and worst things about Tenet. Of course, without any bias here, one of the 5 best is Robert Pattinson. Here’s what Looper had to say:

Most of Christopher Nolan’s films are heavily star-studded and he, like many other directors, has a list of favorite actors to fall back on when starting pre-production on a new project. We can only hope Robert Pattinson gets added to Nolan’s first-look list, because he rules in this movie. 

Pattinson’s character, Neil, has a particularly difficult part to play in this film, as he has an entire friendship with the Protagonist (John David Washington) and the knowledge that comes with it that he has to keep concealed from his friend at all times — at least, until the Protagonist figures it out for himself. Pattinson maintains that façade with ease and artistry, but throws in little bits of emotion here and there to portray Neil’s inner conflict as he tries to repress his natural inclination to be the Protagonist’s friend in their more casual conversations. It all helps the audience to understand that relationship in its totality later on.

He’s a little goofy and fun, too — sometimes appearing in scenes with a loose tie and rumpled appearance when he doesn’t need to be putting on airs for anybody, or aiming for humor and charmingly missing the mark. It adds a much-appreciated chaotic energy to the film, bucking Nolan’s tendency to write rather emotionally sterile characters for twisty narratives that use people like pieces in a sophisticated game.

To read the rest of Looper’s best and worst click the link above, but be wary not to read following recommended articles as they contain ****MAJOR SPOILERS****

Robert Pattinson Talks Neil “Oh, I love this! I love living in a nightmare.” | #Tenet Press Junket

Jason Gorber from That Shelf sat in on the Tenet press junket and joined a conversation with Christopher Nolan and cast. This is what Rob had to say in relation to Neil:

Can you talk about the many layers of your character?

RP: There are so many layers that you make part of the character’s consciousness. He’s strangely aware of the layers of his own character, which is quite an unusual thing to play. But yeah, it’s fun. I remember trying to figure it out. [He’s] a very complex and difficult character within a very complex and intricate world. Once I realized that you can play Neil as someone who enjoys the chaotic situation he’s in, that seemed to be the touchstone for the rest. When you see the protagonist trying to deal with this new situation that’s incredibly difficult to deal with, it’s not pleasurable for any of the characters, once you find out the truth of the story, it’s not a great thing to find out. Neil is just one of these people who is like, “Oh, I love this! I love living in a nightmare.” [laughs]

The South China Morning Post featured these snippets from Rob about Tenet:

“Pretty much all the actors, outside the four of us, didn’t even see the full script,” says Robert Pattinson, when we speak over Zoom. The others in that privileged quartet? John David Washington, Kenneth Branagh, and Elizabeth Debicki.

“People were coming in and shooting for months, and really having no idea what the story was,” adds Pattinson, “which I thought was pretty fascinating.”

…

Bond, Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt – all the famous movie spies you can name – have never faced anything quite like the time-bending threat that dominates Tenet. “People think it’s about time travel and it’s not,” says a grinning Pattinson, clearly enjoying the chance to tease.

…

Still, as Pattinson muses, Tenet may never happen again – an original movie, not based on a known comic book or game, with sets as far as the eye could see. “It happens extremely rarely. And I don’t know how many times it’s ever going to happen again,” he says.

“The movie industry was sort of heading that way anyway. And now [after Covid], it might be pretty fundamentally different. Doing a huge, huge, huge, original movie, I think Chris [Nolan] may be the last guy who can do this.”

Robert Pattinson “Never Thought He’d Be Cast in #Tenet”

Digital Spy was part of the recent press junket in London with Rob and found out that Rob didn’t think he would ever be in a Nolan film because he was such a fan. Here’s what Rob had to say about that and creating his character “Neil”:

It came so totally out of nowhere. When you grow up watching someone’s movies and looking forward to them, for some reason being a fan feels like that person is then out of reach to work with as a colleague. It feels very strange,” he reflected.

“I never really thought that the opportunity would come up. But when it does come up, it feels like you’re in a entirely different universe which is what making this movie really felt like as well.”

…

“He’s strangely aware of the layers of his own character which is quite an unusual thing to play. It’s fun, trying to figure out a very complex and difficult character and also within a very complex and intricate world,” he explained.

“Once I realised that you can play Neil as someone who enjoys the chaotic situation he’s in, then that seemed to be the touchstone for the rest of the character.

“When you see the Protagonist try to deal with this new situation that’s incredibly difficult to deal with, it’s not pleasurable for any of the characters… and Neil is just one of those people who’s like, ‘Oh, I love this, I love living in a nightmare’.”

Exclusive Sneak Peek at James Mottram “The Secrets of Tenet

Eric from Insight Edition has provided us with two more peeks into James Mottram’s “The Secrets of Tenet: Inside Christopher Nolan’s Quantum Cold War”. We now see that Chapter 5 “Road To Nowhere” gives us a little insight into filming in Estonia and the film’s “time-bending” element known as “inversion”. The storyboard also tells us some behind the scenes of the Opera House scene that we have seen in the trailers featuring John David Washington’s character “The Protagonist”. Click below to open up UHQ pdfs. Thanks again to Eric from Insight Editions for sharing with us.

The book will also now be released on 12 August 2020.

Check out more sneak peeks HERE

Christopher Nolan sends message to CineEurope Conference Attendees about Tenet

We all know that Christopher Nolan is a huge advocate for people to return to cinemas to watch films, and more importantly Tenet. Deadline reported that the following message was provided to the attendees at the CineEurope conference held online to discuss distribution and exhibition in the post COVID-19 world. This is what Chris had to say:

We’re in the final throes of it. I don’t want to say too much about it other than we’re extraordinarily excited about what we’ve been able to do with this material. I think of all the films that I’ve made, this is perhaps the one that is most designed for the audience experience, the big screen experience. This is a film whose image and sound really needs to be enjoyed in your theaters on the big screen and we’re very very excited for you to see what it is we’ve done. We’ve made big films in the past, but this is a film whose global reach and level of action is beyond anything we’ve ever attempted before. I think we only would have been able to pull off this film with the level of experience we’ve had doing action films in the past. The movie has an incredible ensemble cast led by John David Washington who gives the most extraordinary and iconic performance as the protagonist at the heart of Tenet and I cannot wait for you guys to see what he’s done with his character. I’m very much looking forward to sharing the film with you. I’m going to get back to finishing it right now and I look forward to your reaction.”