July 17 2010

Film Review: Inception


Christopher Nolan's film Inception is without a doubt the major film event of the summer (Move over Toy Story 3). To describe it briefly without getting into the nuances I would call it a telepathic heist movie. Think Oceans 11 meets Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and you get the idea.

In it, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a "extractor" of dreams. He infiltrates other peoples dreams and steals their ideas for clients. Ken Watanabe plays one of these said clients, who enlists Cobb for an "Inception" - a type of mental subterfuge wherein an idea is planted by someone else inside anothers mind without their knowing. Cobb forms a team to do this, and of course things may or may not go as planned, all while Cobb himself must deal with his oft-haunting and confusing backstory.

A grand idea to be sure, and it is a film to be watched and applauded if only for the originality it brings. Surprisingly, and perhaps to its benefit, the film eschews making any grand philosophical statements about the act of dreaming or the nature of dreams. Rather, the film treats the subject matter in a very scientific, logical manner. The world in which these characters inhabit is one where this is an exact science. The members of Cobb's team each have specific talents to fulfill their specific roles ("Extractor", "Architect", "Mark" etc). There's a little scientific doo-dad that puts the people to sleep. Everyone wears suits and ties. If you're expecting magical realism, go elsewhere. It's important that the film treats dreams like this in order to keep the tension elevated.

So for the most part the premise is an original one. It is in the execution of the premise where influences are worn on the sleeve: zero gravity fight scenes that echo The Matrix, and time/spatial distortions that are reminiscient of The Cell. And yeah, The Matrix again. This is a better film than Matrix, and I am not a fan of that film (don't get me started on the sequels); However, it is hard to not draw a parallel here.

The actors perform admirably with what is a ludicrous, though completely appropriate and well-written, script. Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, and our second favorite alumnus from 3rd Rock from the Sun (French Stewart is God), Joseph Gordon-Levitt fare the best. DiCaprio's delivery of some of the more fantastical lines was grimacing at points, and at points jarred the suspension of disbelief. Finally, as much as I love Marion Cotillard, it would be nice to understand what she is saying half the time.

Like most of Nolan's non-Batman films,(which are overrated by the way; I mean, could anybody stomach The Dark Knight if not for Ledger? Dude carries the entire film) the movie starts off rather confusing and everything coalesces into making perfect (almost) sense at the end. The climax is thrilling, the resolution is satisfying, the music is booming and the ending is something to leave you wanting to watch the movie again. The Prestige is my favorite of Nolan's films and this one is right up there. Catch it in the theatres, IMAX if you can; you'll want to hear this movie loud.

Some additional thoughts with Spoilers:

In a scene in the movie, DiCaprio and Page are in DiCaprio's mind, and they are in an elevator, each floor representing a different memory with his deceased wife. Page remarks, "These aren't dreams are they? They're memories." DiCaprio's character in effect created a way to circumvent death by having a place in his mind wherein he could still be with one he loved. This sort of goes back to what I was talking about in the first blog entry, and a lot of what I've been writing about. Just as a character in my novel might figure out a loophole to cheat death, a writer can create a novel or a story, or anything really, in order to play "what if" and write a different ending to a past event in their life. In a sense, vicariously living through the character. That's one of the greatest and most cathartic aspects of writing, but of course it steers one dangerously close to melodrama, as Inception so often does.