Inception
Written and Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao

The holy grail of summer blockbusters is to create a thrilling action movie packed full of special effects set pieces but also backed by a story that is both intelligent and thought-provoking. It’s a delicate balance that is rarely achieved, partially because it is difficult to pull off, and partially because in this day and age, the financial reward is simply not worth the extra effort. You can make just as much (or probably even more) money with dumbed-down, disposable entertainment — which is why we should all thank our lucky stars that there are still filmmakers like Christopher Nolan out there who want to challenge themselves just as much as they want to challenge us.

There aren’t many directors with a track record that allows them to pitch a complicated and completely original concept to a studio and walk away with $200 million to make it. With that kind of price tag, you can be sure that Nolan’s Inception has a lot to live up to, but make no mistake, this movie is worth every penny and then some. There are dazzling visuals and imaginative action sequences, but what makes this film special is the incredibly dense and carefully folded story that envelops the entire production. While Inception may feel like a little too much work for the average viewer, there is still a sense of awe and wonder at every turn, and more than enough excitement to keep hearts racing. For those who also enjoy giving their brain a workout, however, this movie is the ultimate big budget mindbender.

Inception is definitely a movie best enjoyed without very much prior knowledge, and as such, I will offer only the barest of plot summaries. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a man who makes a questionable living by stealing the innermost secrets of powerful people. He does so by infiltrating their dreams with the help of a team of operatives and a mysterious dream-sharing device. After a failed attempt at extracting information from one business executive (Ken Watanabe), he is offered a job by the very same man. This time, however, must plant information in a competitor’s mind, rather than extract it.

This is arguably Nolan’s first full-blown science-fiction film, but it’s not really as far out as it might seem. He brings his affinity for crime thrillers and mysteries to the mix, ultimately making a heist film with a love story at its core. Aside from the ability to enter dreams, the setting is a near-future world with no discernible difference from our own. Nothing is over-explained, and most of the general concepts are not hard to grasp, it’s just that you have to pay attention. In this way, the movie’s appeal remains fairly broad, and in typical Christopher Nolan fashion the story stays grounded in something familiar.

Watching Inception was, for me, akin to the first time I watched The Matrix, an experience I have been eagerly trying to recapture ever since with very little success. Some of the terminology and concepts instantly harken back to The Matrix, but Inception also quickly separates itself with its subtlety and a different set of rules. Even if you’re not a fan of The Matrix you can at least appreciate the feeling of watching a movie where layers are peeled back to reveal something deeper, and where, unlike most blockbusters, the story never falls apart or sacrifices its own internal logic. Inception is tightly plotted and the rules of the dream world are well-conceived from all angles, holding up under further scrutiny.

Speaking of dreams, Nolan has assembled a dream cast here and they certainly have a hand in elevating the film as well. Leonardo DiCaprio does most of the heavy lifting, and the only unfortunate thing is that there are a lot of similarities between his performance here and his performance earlier this year in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island. Marion Cotillard has an equally difficult job but is able to match DiCaprio’s intensity while keeping the more emotional moments reined in. Ellen Page finally manages to step out from under the Juno stereotype, playing the young newcomer who is suspicious of Cobb’s motives, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy are both somewhat underused dramatically although they do manage to carry out the bulk of the ass-kicking. Then there is Batman alumni Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and Michael Caine, all of whom are a pleasure to watch. Admittedly, very few supporting characters are truly fleshed out, but the whole movie revolves around Cobb so it only seems appropriate.

The action and special effects are every bit as fantastic and unique as you’ve been led to believe. You hear the word “mind-blowing” thrown around a lot nowadays, but it really does apply here. The fights are never superhuman like in The Matrix, but there are some very interesting scraps in shifting environments and zero gravity. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you wonder, “How the heck did they do that?” There are also some great car chases, shoot outs, and some trippy visuals involving paradoxical environments. If that’s not enough, there is also one sequence reminiscent of a James Bond movie with the team members decked out in matching winter gear and skiis, fighting their way across a snowy landscape. Hans Zimmer’s sinister score pounds itself into your senses to fuel the adrenaline even further.

The one weakness I can see in this film it is that it does feel a bit bloated and unwieldy in the last act. Christopher Nolan doesn’t have many movies that clock in under two hours long, and just like The Dark Knight, there is a general awareness that creeps in at some point that it might be going on a bit longer than necessary. The slow build up to the film’s finale may turn off some viewers, and the levels of recursion may be too much for others, but it lures you back with the prospect of getting even more out of it on repeat viewings.

While it’s true that Inception may not be what everyone is looking for in a summer blockbuster, as far as I’m concerned it is exactly what gets me excited about going to the movies in the first place. Some will say it’s too out there, and others not weird enough, but in that sense it seems to have found the ideal middle ground. It is definitely more of a cerebral experience than an emotional one, but there are very few blockbusters that have ever dared to be this challenging. It is a rare and near-perfect beast, cleverly conceived and executed with precision — one that implants itself in your mind and forces you to contemplate it for weeks afterward. In that way, I suppose this proves that a great film can be the most resilient parasite of all. — Sean

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