Tetris is a very different kind of video game film. Unlike the Uncharteds, Sonic the Hedgehogs, and The Super Mario Bros. Movies of the world, Tetris keeps the action very much in our reality. Well, to a certain degree. This thriller, based on real life events, is noticeably pounded to fit the Hollywood mould at times, but it nonetheless presents the fascinating true story of how puzzle game Tetris escaped Soviet Russia in 1988 to become a global cultural phenomenon.
For a film that is mostly about people bickering over contracts and negotiating licensing rights in utilitarian boardrooms, Tetris is surprisingly entertaining and breezy. Continually referencing its video game source material, establishing shots and key scenes are overlaid with colourful eight-bit graphics. More important in energizing the film, though, is Taron Egerton’s performance as small-scale video game publisher Henk Rogers.
Rogers is a likeable everyman who sees the potential of Tetris to capture the imagination of everyone – not just gaming’s traditional adolescent audience – and therefore won’t take no for an answer in the heated contest to secure the handheld rights from the Russian authorities. There is no property ownership in the Communist USSR, of course, so Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) has no say in the matter, with his bosses at state-owned computer company ELORG handling the deal instead.
Forced to bargain in person in Soviet Russia, which means numerous bureaucratic obstacles, and severe culture clash, Rogers has to stay motivated. He’s put everything on the line as collateral, from his company to the Tokyo home that his wife and children live in. And yet, he doesn’t succumb to the underhanded tactics of his rivals – which include the likes of literally hefty media tycoon Robert Maxwell (Roger Allam), his pampered son Kevin (Anthony Boyle), and fellow small-scale game licenser Robert Stein (Toby Jones). All Rogers wants to do is secure a fair deal for everyone concerned.
It’s this sense of fairness that is Tetris’s greatest emotional hook. Audiences want underdog Rogers to succeed as he’s caught slap-bang in the middle between ruthless 80s Capitalism out of the West (represented by the Maxwells), and the utterly self-serving side of Communism that has taken root east of the teetering Berlin Wall. The latter is embodied by Igor Grabuzov’s greasy Valentin Trifonov, head of the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Trifonov’s corruption will hit especially hard for South African audiences, as he’s a political authority who prioritises personal enrichment at the expense of their country. Having long ago discarded ideological principles, Trifonov drives bad deals if bribes slide into his pocket, bullying and beating good people into submission if they stand in his way. Meanwhile, the general population live miserable lives of deprivation, and waiting in long queues. Sounds very familiar actually.
Anyway, Tetris provides an eye-opening and convincing look at Russia during the last-gasp days of the Soviet Union. In fact, the film nails the era of the late 80s in general, inside and outside the USSR. It’s just a pity that the same sense of credibility doesn’t extend through the entire film. Maybe it’s because we see so much brazen corporate sliminess on the daily now, but the characters’ ferocious drive to do the legal right thing, and not just distribute Tetris without a licensing agreement, doesn’t ring true. Then again, this plot point could be explained away as simply doing business in a different time.
Far less excusable, and believable, is a high-stakes car chase to cap off the film. It’s unquestionably exciting, but given the amount of time Tetris spends on showing Soviet Russia as a surveillance state, all the villains really needed to do is make one phone call to stop Rogers and co. But then viewers wouldn’t receive their crowd-pleasing finale, where the heroes triumph and the boo-hiss bad guys get their comeuppance.
As a piece of history turned into brisk, easy-to-digest entertainment, all the pieces are present in Tetris, barring a consistent sense of plausibility.
Tetris released on 31 March on Apple TV+, and is available to stream at home right now.
| Tetris review | |
Tetris takes a real-life tale of boardroom bartering and injects it with energy and likeability. It’s buoyed by Egerton’s motivated and charismatic performance, as well as the film’s convincing capture of a past era. Less convincing are certain story beats, which reek of Hollywood-isation, and are distractingly hard to swallow. |
7 |
| Tetris was reviewed on Apple TV+ | |