Movie Review- Inception

Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan of Memento and, perhaps more famously, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight fame, has quite possibly been the most anticipated film of this summer. There was one of Hollywood's most prominent directors and Nolan's first film after the smash hit success The Dark Knight and then you include a cast filled with some of the biggest stars out there, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard. This was a movie that was on most everybody's radar and topped countless "must see" lists for film goers in the Summer of 2010. And thus, there I was sitting in The Grand in Winston-Salem at midnight to see the first showing of Inception, eagerly awaiting whatever fantastic story Christopher Nolan cooked up and was going to play out before us.

The film tells the story of a team of thieves, led by Cobb (played by DiCaprio), Arthur (Gordon-Levitt), Eames (Tom Hardy) and new recruit Ariadne (Ellen Page), who are collectively contracted by Saito (Ken Watanabe). But these aren't thieves in the traditional sense, for the stealing they do is in the mind. Cobb and Arthur were trained by the US military to infiltrate other people's dreams in order to gain information. However, Saito does not contract them for extraction but instead for "inception," the incredibly difficult and nearly imposible task of placing an idea within the mind of another, namely in the mind of Robert Fischer Jr. (played by Cillian Murphy) to break up his father's company, which is a rival to Saito's own. Here's the trailer for the film, which will give you a little better idea as to what the film is about:



Even with my own description coupled with the trailer, I know I'm only scratching the very surface of what is a very complex film. It's a hard film to briefly describe, but a fascinating one to investigate and consider. Now, I know most (if not everyone) is going to love this movie and I'm sure it will earn a spot on nearly everyone's end-of-the-year best films list, and thus I want to be contrarian but... I absolutely cannot. Inception is good, really really really good, an outstanding and well-made film and I think the bulk of the praise goes to Nolan.

Nolan, who wrote the film as well, creates a world on the screen that is complex but not so complex that you lose your way as you watch. He crafts something that is intricate with many layers and complexities, yet manages to not be obtuse and refusing general understanding. The visuals in the film are amazing as we see in the dreams the scenery and the world that surrounds the characters being bent and torn apart right before our very eyes. Nolan has taken a huge step forward in directing as well, visually commanding the camera. One can see how he's grown as a director from The Dark Knight to this film. Nolan creates a world that is amazing to even witness, while not even delving into the film's narrative. Nolan blends old and new, retro and futuristic, to make something that is remarkably pleasing to the eye and that you want to see. The art direction and set design, as well as the cinematography and camera work, deserves a great deal of praise and should be in the running for the appropriate Academy Awards when the nominations are announced.

Inception is thematically rich as well and thus will be a film that will stand up to intellectual consideration and intense discussion as the years go on. What I thought was most interesting was the way the film played with the idea of genre. There were elements to the film that were out of science fiction, particularly echoes of The Matrix as there was an alternate reality located solely within the mind or divorced from the physical world. In addition, there were elements that were positively film noir-ish, while I was even reminded of Oceans 11 and those other heist films that occupy a genre unto themselves (something the great Will Leitch picked up on as well). But beyond the invoking of different genres and style of films, we see Nolan considering the ideas of the subconscious, considering how dreams affect us and our thinking as well as the very power of an idea. One of Cobb's lines in the film really hammers this point home:

"What's the most resilient parasite? An Idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Which is why I have to steal it."

Beyond being a science fiction-y/noir/heist film/psychological thriller, Nolan is also exploring the very nature and the power of ideas, and thus the creative process as well. It also reminded me of that line in V for Vendetta about how "ideas are bulletproof." But Nolan took ideas and made them (ideas) as valuable as money and the most important thing, which reflects the age we live in in so many ways. These themes and the consideration of the power and complexity of the mind, as well as this seeming exploration of different genres,  is what makes this film a rich one and pushes it beyond the mere science fiction/psychological thriller film. Also, the layering of time (with the distinction between the "real" world and "dream" worlds) was very well done and gave Nolan room to explore and play with the action. (I hate saying things like this but...) The layering of time, and how time was portrayed in the film, seemed decidedly postmodern to me, as time within the different worlds were layered upon one another and stretched out in one point while not in another.

The film's cast and their performances were all great as well, and everyone did a good job with their respective roles. It was particularly interesting to see Gordon-Levitt and Page in this kind of film, filled with action and psychological drama that they didn't really have to deal with in their other films. I mean, I still see Ellen Page as Juno, so seeing her in a film like this was startling at first but I though she did a good job, as did Gordon-Levitt (whom I will always think of as being in 10 Things I Hate About You). DiCaprio was strong as well, and displayed the acting chops he picked up after doing so many films for Martin Scorcese. I also enjoyed seeing some of the actors from Nolan's Batman moves, such as Murphy, Watanabe and Michael Caine, make appearances throughout the film. I particularly enjoyed seeing more of Cillian Murphy, who I really liked as Jonathan Crane (or The Scarecrow) in those Batman movies. I was intrigued how Nolan used Cotillard and a little bit surprised, but I thought he used her well while maybe not using her as much, which kept the film from feeling too crowded with stars.

I've been heaping a great deal of praise on Nolan and this film, but it certainly wasn't perfect. Sometimes I felt the film became... predictable? at least within the context of the genre and world you were inhabiting. There were a couple big plot turns and revelatory bits of information I had already guessed before they were revealed. Also, I have a major issue with the ending, which felt really out-of-touch with the feelings and sense of the rest of the film but I won't get into it here so I don't ruin the ending for anyone else. If you'd like to hear what I think about the ending and perhaps discuss it, leave a comment and we can continue this discussion via e-mail. While I don't think the ending ruined the movie or anything, I just... had some issues with it that slightly diminished the film's luster for me.

But that said, it was only diminished slightly as Inception is certainly one of the best films I'll see this year. It's a great movie for this summer, one that blends action, drama, intrigue and issues of reality into a complex and rich film. It is highly entertaining and exciting, but certainly is not fluff and you feel enriched after having watched the film. Normally, the exciting movies one sees during the summer are big-budget pieces of fluff but Inception is the antidote to all that, as a movie that is thoughtful and complex while also exciting and engaging. With this film, Nolan shows that he is not merely a great director of Batman films, but a great director in his own right, and he has created a film that stands up very well. From his outstanding cast featuring many of the  biggest and most well-known stars in Hollywood today, to the amazing visuals and the rich and complex story he crafts, Nolan has created something in Inception that is certainly worth the price of admission. I give the film an A-, with the only reason it doesn't get an A being my issues with the ending, but it is definitely a film I would recommend to anyone and will be one that stands out when I think back on 2010 and the movies. If you want to beat the summer heat by taking in a movie, but you want to see something that challenges you just as much as it entertains you, go see Christopher Nolan's Inception.