Directed by: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard
This review is going to seem a bit goofy. Any attempt to decipher the plot (except for its most basic outline) is a fool's errand. The film is visually stunning and wholly original, yet I've seen it once, admired it, and have no real desire to see it again. I caught it on cable and watched a little bit of it, but truth be told I switched to a Big Bang Theory rerun. My mind can only take so much.
Inception is a feast for the eyes and an overload for the brain, yet it does allow itself its share of human moments. The motives of Cobb (DiCaprio) are understandable: He is a corporate raider who does one last job so he can see his children again. Why is he in exile in the first place? I think the reason was explained, or maybe it wasn't. A CEO named Saito (Watanabe) promises Cobb he can make a call and all of the obstacles in Cobb's way will be removed, if he can pull off what Saito asks of him. What is it? Well, Cobb is a corporate raider with a team that can infiltrate the dreams of sleeping people and steal their secrets. Saito wants Cobb to slip into the mind of his biggest rival Robert Fischer (Murphy) and steal an idea which will save Saito's company and destroy Fischer's.
Cobb assembles his team, all of which play a part in the plan (although I could never pass a quiz on what it is they do in a million years), and they get to work. Only Cobb emerges as a true individual, the rest perform their assigned functions and then leave the scene. They are barely given enough time to develop personalities. Michael Caine is on hand as Cobb's father, who sympathizes with him and wishes only for a reunited family. Cobb's own dreams are haunted by visions of his now dead wife (Cotillard), who spends the bulk of her time haunting Cobb and needling him to provoke his guilt over his failure to stop her death. How did she die? I think the reason was explained, or maybe it wasn't. It may have completely escaped me.
Simply slipping into the subconscious mind of Fischer will not be easy. He has his own security of sorts, which includes guards brandishing automatic weapons. My question is: How does one install this security? Why would anyone think they would ever need it? Or is it a natural defense system? The mind boggles. Cobb and company need to work through different layers of Fischer's mind and go deeper and deeper in order to achieve their goal. This means more gunfire and car chases, which seem strange in a film about the human mind, but in the world of Inception almost seems right at home.
Are the standard action movie gunfights and chases Nolan's way of hedging his bets to make the film more palatable? The screenplay is meticulously constructed, but how many people would be able to tolerate a nearly two hour, 45 minute film about dreams with no action? The idea of people slipping into people's dreams to alter them is not necessarily new. Dreamscape (1984) was an action thriller about a psychic who is able to enter the dreams of his subjects and change the dream and the outcome in reality. Dreamscape was not as cumbersome as Inception. The visuals were high-tech for the time, but it was more linear and knew what it wanted to do. Inception takes the long way around to achieve the same result. This includes about one hour more of running time.
Inception is a film that kept me interested, mostly because the visuals and sound are loud and jarring. It is not a film with great human interest. Nolan instead goes for the gusto with buildings and rooms that shape shift and a touching ending. Is it fair to say that Nolan was more focused on the sights and sounds? Probably. I admire the originality of Nolan's vision and his willingness to go nuts with it. About thirty minutes less running time and some more human touches and Inception would have been great.
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