Film review: Inception

Writer/director: Christopher Nolan
Producer: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
Cast : Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, Pete Postlethwaite, Lukas Haas
Sci-fi action-thriller, PG-13
2 hours 28 minutes

It was all a dream.

For decades, this has been the lamest way to end a story. What may have been original ages past became had become a silly cliché. But with one brilliant stroke, writer/director Christopher Nolan has found a way with his latest film Inception to take the tired subject of dreams and create a work of breathtaking originality.

Undoubtedly, not everyone will agree. There has already been a vocal backlash to Inception and some critics have responded very negatively to it, at least initially. This is to be expected and almost proves its ingeniousness, since many daring works are polarizing and will lose people along the way. They may require revisiting to better appreciate it. But for those willing to go along with the ride, it's an intriguing and enjoyable journey.

For this type of film, the less you know before seeing it, the better. All you need to know really is that it's on the long side at two-and-a-half hours and that it's about a dream-thief named Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who can steal people's ideas in their dream state.

After you see it, if you like it then you'll love it and you'll want to see it again. There is a lot going on here, and lots worth exploring if you're so inclined. It's a very smart movie that will have you asking a lot of questions. Cinema Blend has a good page where they've tried to answer a good number of them. It's definitely worth checking out, but only after you've seen the film.

I think a certain ambiguity is part of the enjoyment and appeal. As with Total Recall, you can't be quite sure where you are and it works with varying explanations. The layered approach to dreams reminds me of reading Wuthering Heights and the layered approach that Emily Brontë took with the narration - the narrator tells stories of people telling stories about others telling stories and so forth. You end up being somewhat intentionally confused and uncertain about the veracity of the information.

Nolan did a fine job with the script, too. He maintains the logic of his premise quite rigourously. He thoughtfully works in some of the themes into the plot, the set design (notice the chess pattern in this picture) and the names of the characters. Ariadne (Ellen Page) is of course the woman in Greek mythology who provides the thread to Theseus so he can find his way out of the Labyrinth after slaying the Minotaur. Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy) is named for the brilliant chess champion Bobby Fischer, while his father Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite) has a name reminiscent of M.C. Escher (Maurits Cornelis Escher). Mal (Marion Cotillard) literally means bad or evil in Latin, while Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) suggests Dominus, i.e. god.

My only complaint with the film would be the constant yet uninspired music of Hans Zimmer. Otherwise, the film could hardly be improved. It manages to take some heady ideas and make them engrossing and dramatic. You can safely ignore the naysayers who dismiss Inception as a ripoff of The Matrix, Dark City or other such predecessors, as if those films were created in a vacuum. This film stands alone, and is without a doubt one of the best films of the year. It is a wondrous shared dream between Nolan and us viewers in the audience.