INCEPTION (PG-13)
Cast & Credits
Cobb Leonardo DiCaprio
Saito Ken Watanabe
Arthur Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Mal Marion Cotillard
Ariadne Ellen Page
Eames Tom Hardy
Robert Fischer Jr. Cillian Murphy
Browning Tom Berenger
Miles Michael Caine
Yusuf Dileep Rao
Maurice Fischer Pete Postlethwaite
Warner Brothers presents a film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Running time: 148 minutes. MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of violence and action throughout).
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If I were asked to describe Christopher Nolan's masterfully crafted timepiece of a movie, "Inception", in one word, it would be: "intricate".
It's difficult to talk about the plot of the movie without giving away some of its intimate details, so dependent are those details on secrets and revelations and learning the film's unique logic and specific rules as it unfurls, but in a nutshell: Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) leads a team of, essentially, idea thieves, who infiltrate a subject's dreams in order to steal their secrets and choice ideas for powerful, immensely wealthy clients. They accept an almost-impossible job: to enter the dreams of an heir to an energy corporation (Cillian Murphy) and plant an idea not his own--this is what's known in the film as "inception", and it's nearly impossible to do. They must enter and create dreams within dreams within dreams, and each successive dream level is more unstable than the last. Things are complicated by the fact that Cobb has some serious, serious baggage that tends to get in the way of their heists in the form of his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard).
It's a testament to the film's intense hold on nearly every corner of your brain that you don't notice how all the other characters are essentially window dressing to the plot, to Cobb's tortured quest to see his kids again, to getting the job done. This is an action movie, where everyone is working towards a single goal by getting into gunfights and chases and fights, but it's an action movie of the mind. You're kept on the edge of your seat, but not necessarily because of the car chases and gunfights--you're constantly kept unstable and leaping from one newly uncovered detail to the next, like the loops of a phone cord, everything leading to a new twist, then another, then another. You're excited because you’re learning, not just because you're titillated, and that's absolutely a unique experience for this moviegoer.
For a movie that deals so much with the dream world and the subconscious and the nature of perception vs. reality, one would expect to walk away from the film with big ideas regarding these subjects; intriguing tidbits to discuss with friends afterward, kernels of ideas that can be picked over and applied to your own dreams and memories, perhaps. Instead, I found myself (and friends or colleagues who saw the film as well concur) left with nothing more than the details of the film itself--its story intricacies and layers and moving parts and how well they do or do not fit into each other take up so much of the film's time and your attention that you're left with an excellent experience in mental derring-do and little else.
This is not to detract from the film's expertly-displayed craft; this is one of the best action movies ever conceived. It just doesn't quite rise above being anything other than an action movie with a heist plot. An incredibly complex, multi-layered heist involving the logic of dreams and ending enigmatically with what could or could not be a major, mind-screwing twist, but an action heist film nonetheless.
The parts that make up this machine-like whole are absolutely top-of-the-line: the special effects are flawless, the acting is not going to win anyone any awards but is totally acceptable and non-distracting (a rarity for most summer blockbusters), the music is propulsive and relatively unobtrusive, and you are completely immersed in the world of the story via the filmmakers' phenomenal attention to detail.
I hold the film in high regard because it's an experience like I've never had at the movies before--an ingenious action movie with a beating heart of emotion as the protagonist's goal using the very nature of dreams and moviegoing as its visual language, propelling you along with the strength of its narrative details rather than its visual gimmicks. That sort of thing doesn't come along often, after all. But it leaves one feeling unfulfilled, teased at being hurled into the world of dreams and leaps in logic and questions leading to questions that don't ultimately add to your understanding of those subjects any more than when you started. It has you using your mind in ways you don't ordinarily just to understand the movie's own plot and multifaceted connections. It's as if you're using the same mechanisms you usually use to learn in order to be entertained, and when you haven't learned anything besides the movie's story at the end, you feel a bit cheated.
Still, I'll take a movie that is daring and complex enough to bring the viewer down paths they don't ordinarily go--especially in an action thriller context--over a movie that is interested in mindlessly titillating you with explosions and little else any day. If more action blockbusters attempted to do what "Inception" does so well, we'd be in very good shape as moviegoers, with plenty to look forward to and celebrate. It might not be perfect, but it comes very, very close.
