I'll start out by admitting that it's 4:15am and I am writing this article in two parts; i'm forcing myself to take a nap, and go see this movie again, to make sure that I can find the best words possible to write a review for this film. By the time you read this I'll have mulled the movie over for about twenty-four hours. As always, no spoilers below, though a few plot points/key elements will be discussed.
Inception is terrific. hands-down fantastic. It has already bested every movie I've seen this year and may best a few more right off my top ten list. The premise, common knowledge or maybe not, is this; what if your dreams could be broken into? your most valuable information no longer hidden? when dealing in theft and dreams, where does the line get drawn between fantasy and truth? imagination and empirical accuracy?
Dom Cobb is the best at what he does: he's something of a mind-mercenary; he can help you protect your secrets but more often that's only a cover for him to steal those same secrets from you. His point man, Arthur, is a competent, serious, experienced young man who's efficient and rational to a tee, and a necessary balance to Dom's own self; When a man has this sort of power with his mind, it's clear from the get-go that things aren't always going to be easy for our protagonists. Quickly we learn that part of his continuing complication lies in the interference during heists by a spectre from his past, a residual memory of his deceased wife that seems to be frighteningly as real as the men themselves invading the dream. But when one last job offer arrives on Dom's doorstep, the rewards promised drive him to seek success on the mission by any means. He assembles a new team, bringing the fledgling Ariadne under his wing to help construct their maze; also he calls in the truly enjoyable Eames, a grifter and forger from Cobb's past. They embark on a drastically dangerous task- the titular idea of inception; The simplest way to put it is this-- rather than stealing secrets, inception is the act of convincing a mind to believe something that is untrue. They break into a corporate royalty's mind with the goal of planting a new thought when things instantly get unpredictable and dangerous, leading to a tense, riveting cat-and-mouse chase of accomplishing their goal before the subconscious of their target can evict them from the dream and ruin the mission.
Intellectually, I had no problem following the film. my headaches (and they're the good kind) come from the stunned attempts at truly wrapping my brain around ALL of the various, quiet intricacies of this fine, fine piece of film-making. there are so many things going on in each scene, however, that I can see how one might lose track.
the twisted romance subplot is a tragic and beautiful one; The love between Marion Cotillard's Mal and DiCaprio's Dom is entirely believable and it broke my heart to suffer alongside Dom as he tried to keep Mal alive in these painful memories, the only way to keep himself sane. It's the downfall of their love that strikes the deepest chord with the underlying question the film raises-- specifically, where does the line between reality and fantasy exist when one spends a lifetime running through people's dreams? seeing the world Dom and Mal have built in their time on the deep levels of the dreamscape are breathtaking, and I have even more respect and curiosity for how Christopher Nolan's mind must work, to be able to envision and then execute such a unique universe.
Visually, again I say it is breathtaking. I remember seeing an article that said "Inception is what the last two Matrix movies wished they could be". Now, while I disagree to some extent, I believe this statement is in essence correct; the Matrix tried to suggest that the reality we're in is not in fact a reality at all; That's the unspoken question Nolan has planted in our brains over the course of the film, something of an Inception of his own I suppose. and I say you haven't "gotten it" if you don't walk out of that movie theater ready to argue that very answer with the person next to you. It's part of what makes this film so fun! the film has a thru-line of suggesting that it's up to US to choose what is reality and what isn't. poetry of the mind, I feel. and completely well-done.
Insofar as this close-future world could exist, perhaps, its immediacy by not babying you with information (heck, they don't even tell you the name of the device used to induce the dream state!) provides another sense of envelopment that weaves beautifully with the existing theme of "questioning reality".
Major, MAJOR props to mister Joseph Gordon-Levitt for his work as Arthur and his exhausting work in the landscape of dreams. for a good section of the film he's working some impressive wire-work and CGI-related stunts that must have taken hours to film and boundless patience. But i'll be damned if it didn't pay off in spades.
the support cast is solid through and through, and quite simply I wish that we could spend more time learning about them. I understand entirely that the focus stayed on Dom and his personal demons, but I specifically felt that there was more to Ellen Page's Ariadne that we weren't being allowed to see; there's more going on behind those eyes and I wish we could have taken a little bit more time to explore what makes her tick, why she went along with this team of mind-thieves who basically showed up out of nowhere and invited her to tackle the impossible. Similarly I feel that the movie wouldn't have suffered from a little more Michael Caine.
In summation, I want to see this movie three more times just to see what my friends think, because this is a goldmine of discussion topics and I loved every minute of it.
If you're reading this and you haven't seen the film yet then I HIGHLY recommend you fix that within a day. If you have seen it I would love your comments below and want to pick your brain for a few discussions on the whole masterpiece.
Five out of Five totems. (no, not telling you what my totem would be. just in case...)
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