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Writer-director Christopher Nolan explores the realm of dreams in Inception, his first film since his acclaimed box office juggernaut The Dark Knight. The sci-fi thriller's premise sounds simple enough, but its execution by Nolan is anything but. Ostensibly an international heist caper, Inception follows Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an "extractor" whose form of corporate espionage is to invade the dreams of the rich and powerful and pluck their most tightly guarded secrets from the depths of their subconscious. "A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules," Cobb says at one point.
Cobb is an international fugitive due to a dark deed from his past that prevents him from being able to return stateside to see his children. A shady corporate titan, Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe), offers Cobb a chance to wipe his past clean and go home. The job? Inception -- planting an idea into a mark's subconscious rather than stealing one. Saito wants Cobb and his longtime point man, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), to invade the dreams of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an energy conglomerate who is also riddled with daddy issues. Saito wants to take out the competition so to speak.
Cobb and Arthur assemble a team that includes the forger Eames (Tom Hardy), Yusuf the chemist (Avatar's Dileep Rao), and newcomer Ariadne (Ellen Page), an architect who will literally design and build the world of the mark's dreams. Shadowing Dom in the dream realm is the enigamtic Mal (Marion Cotillard), a woman from Dom's past who threatens the entire operation. (Michael Caine, Pete Postlethwaite, Tom Berenger and Lukas Haas pop up in small roles.) The deeper Cobb and his team venture into Fischer's subconscious, the more dangerous the mission becomes and the more likely it is that they could all end up trapped there -- a seeming eternity in the time of the mind and a fate that could render them all vegetables in the real world.
With Inception, Nolan has made his equivalent to The Big Sleep (ironic given the subject matter of Nolan's film), a thriller whose near indecipherable storyline will boggle minds decades to come -- or even his 2001, a genre opus guaranteed to confound or amaze viewers. Or is it Nolan's finally realized attempt at making a James Bond film? Or a heist thriller to rival Heat? A better version of Dreamscape? Inception is all of the above, and yet it's also a singular accomplishment from a filmmaker who has only gotten better with each film. Indeed, Inception could very well be Nolan's masterpiece.
At times evoking the works of Jean Cocteau, Stanley Kubrick, and Michael Mann, Nolan has crafted an elaborate cinematic labyrinth where, like the dreams the protagonists are invading, there are different levels, each with its own distinct palette and style. As confusing as the film can be at times (there's one point where there are at least four different storylines going on simultaneously), one never senses that Nolan himself is lost, and that's the difference between a brilliant, multi-layered narrative and a movie that's just a mindjob for the sake of being clever.
Inception may be a cerebral film, but it's still one that knows how to entertain. There are shades of the Ocean's films in the heist sequences, The Matrix at other points, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service during the snowbound finale (with Hardy as 007). And unlike some of Kubrick and Mann's films, Nolan manages to keep the viewer emotionally invested in his amoral characters, particularly Cobb, and doesn't ever let the film become too cold or remote. His top-notch cast helps him achieve that.
DiCaprio finds the tortured center of his character, a man who is part thief and part spy and whose own guilt-ridden subconscious stands to destroy his chances of succeeding at the proverbial one last job. Inception is sort of a companion piece in a way to Shutter Island, the year's other mind-bender DiCaprio thriller. Gordon-Levitt -- who, like DiCaprio, was a child sitcom actor -- continues to prove he's one of the brightest up and coming dramatic actors with his turn here. And although she has less screen time than the rest of the cast, Cotillard shines as the film's cloest thing to a femme fatale. She's certainly better served here than she was in Public Enemies (and she'd make one helluva Catwoman, but I digress).
Page has left her Juno persona behind and graduated into her young Jodie Foster period, and she is solid as DiCaprio's protege of sorts and the audience stand-in for all the necessary exposition. It was great to see Watanabe get more screen time here than he did in Batman Begins, and he finds the humanity in a greedy captain of industry out to destroy another (and possibly better) man's life and livelihood. (That's the thing to remember about these characters: They're actually bad guys who are out to ruin an innocent person's life, and yet we like them.) The biggest surprise in the cast is Hardy, who plays the suave badass of the group; seeing as how general audiences probably didn't see him in Bronson, this will be their introduction to him. If Bronson was his Layer Cake, then this is his Munich (so when Daniel Craig is no longer 007, EON would do well to hire Hardy).
On a technical level, the dreamworld special effects, score by Hans Zimmer, and cinematography by Wally Pfister are all superb. It may seem far too soon to speak of awards consideration, but Inception could be the film to do what Dark Knight didn't do for Nolan (i.e., win him an Oscar -- or at least a nomination). His decade-long commitment to this project, the depth of originality and intelligence he's brought to it, and the confidence and skill he shows not only behind the camera but as a writer demands recognition of the highest order from the industry.
Simply put, Inception is a breathtaking achievement and a movie-going experience well worth your time and investment. In a year full of 3D remakes, reboots, sequels, and empty star vehicles, one hopes audiences will reward such terrific but challenging original entertainment with their wallets.
Very good review.
I'm gonna see this.
Everyone should.
Cobb is an international fugitive due to a dark deed from his past that prevents him from being able to return stateside to see his children. A shady corporate titan, Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe), offers Cobb a chance to wipe his past clean and go home. The job? Inception -- planting an idea into a mark's subconscious rather than stealing one. Saito wants Cobb and his longtime point man, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), to invade the dreams of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to an energy conglomerate who is also riddled with daddy issues. Saito wants to take out the competition so to speak.
Cobb and Arthur assemble a team that includes the forger Eames (Tom Hardy), Yusuf the chemist (Avatar's Dileep Rao), and newcomer Ariadne (Ellen Page), an architect who will literally design and build the world of the mark's dreams. Shadowing Dom in the dream realm is the enigamtic Mal (Marion Cotillard), a woman from Dom's past who threatens the entire operation. (Michael Caine, Pete Postlethwaite, Tom Berenger and Lukas Haas pop up in small roles.) The deeper Cobb and his team venture into Fischer's subconscious, the more dangerous the mission becomes and the more likely it is that they could all end up trapped there -- a seeming eternity in the time of the mind and a fate that could render them all vegetables in the real world.
With Inception, Nolan has made his equivalent to The Big Sleep (ironic given the subject matter of Nolan's film), a thriller whose near indecipherable storyline will boggle minds decades to come -- or even his 2001, a genre opus guaranteed to confound or amaze viewers. Or is it Nolan's finally realized attempt at making a James Bond film? Or a heist thriller to rival Heat? A better version of Dreamscape? Inception is all of the above, and yet it's also a singular accomplishment from a filmmaker who has only gotten better with each film. Indeed, Inception could very well be Nolan's masterpiece.
At times evoking the works of Jean Cocteau, Stanley Kubrick, and Michael Mann, Nolan has crafted an elaborate cinematic labyrinth where, like the dreams the protagonists are invading, there are different levels, each with its own distinct palette and style. As confusing as the film can be at times (there's one point where there are at least four different storylines going on simultaneously), one never senses that Nolan himself is lost, and that's the difference between a brilliant, multi-layered narrative and a movie that's just a mindjob for the sake of being clever.
Inception may be a cerebral film, but it's still one that knows how to entertain. There are shades of the Ocean's films in the heist sequences, The Matrix at other points, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service during the snowbound finale (with Hardy as 007). And unlike some of Kubrick and Mann's films, Nolan manages to keep the viewer emotionally invested in his amoral characters, particularly Cobb, and doesn't ever let the film become too cold or remote. His top-notch cast helps him achieve that.
DiCaprio finds the tortured center of his character, a man who is part thief and part spy and whose own guilt-ridden subconscious stands to destroy his chances of succeeding at the proverbial one last job. Inception is sort of a companion piece in a way to Shutter Island, the year's other mind-bender DiCaprio thriller. Gordon-Levitt -- who, like DiCaprio, was a child sitcom actor -- continues to prove he's one of the brightest up and coming dramatic actors with his turn here. And although she has less screen time than the rest of the cast, Cotillard shines as the film's cloest thing to a femme fatale. She's certainly better served here than she was in Public Enemies (and she'd make one helluva Catwoman, but I digress).
Page has left her Juno persona behind and graduated into her young Jodie Foster period, and she is solid as DiCaprio's protege of sorts and the audience stand-in for all the necessary exposition. It was great to see Watanabe get more screen time here than he did in Batman Begins, and he finds the humanity in a greedy captain of industry out to destroy another (and possibly better) man's life and livelihood. (That's the thing to remember about these characters: They're actually bad guys who are out to ruin an innocent person's life, and yet we like them.) The biggest surprise in the cast is Hardy, who plays the suave badass of the group; seeing as how general audiences probably didn't see him in Bronson, this will be their introduction to him. If Bronson was his Layer Cake, then this is his Munich (so when Daniel Craig is no longer 007, EON would do well to hire Hardy).
On a technical level, the dreamworld special effects, score by Hans Zimmer, and cinematography by Wally Pfister are all superb. It may seem far too soon to speak of awards consideration, but Inception could be the film to do what Dark Knight didn't do for Nolan (i.e., win him an Oscar -- or at least a nomination). His decade-long commitment to this project, the depth of originality and intelligence he's brought to it, and the confidence and skill he shows not only behind the camera but as a writer demands recognition of the highest order from the industry.
Simply put, Inception is a breathtaking achievement and a movie-going experience well worth your time and investment. In a year full of 3D remakes, reboots, sequels, and empty star vehicles, one hopes audiences will reward such terrific but challenging original entertainment with their wallets.
Very good review.
I'm gonna see this.
Everyone should.
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