Review – Inception
July 16, 2010 by Amy Taylor
Filed under Reviews
When I mention to people that I saw Inception, the response is always the same – they ask “is it amazing” and then add “but don’t tell me anything!” All we get from the trailer for Inception is that it is about dreams, has crazy special effects, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, but yet it is enough to give everyone a reason to be intrigued and interested in seeing this movie. The funny thing is when I watched the trailer again after seeing the movie I realized that nearly everything I saw in the trailer was not what I expected when I saw the moments in context.
Since no one wants to know anything, I’ll keep the synopsis brief. In Inception, wanted man Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Arthur’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) profession is to extract secrets from people by invading their dreams. When they fail at an extraction from Saito (Ken Wantanabe), he hunts them down and turns the tables on them. He offers Cobb his freedom in exchange for performing an inception, planting a thought into a dream that will culminate into a meaningful thought, of the son (Cillian Murphy) of a dying business rival. The process of inception is difficult and dangerous, requiring diving into deep levels of dreams within dreams.
Cobb is challenged in this career by the fact that his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), possibly a euphemism for malware, appears in Cobb’s dreams and attempts to sabotage his efforts. His partners in this inception are unaware of what a major problem Mal could potentially be with the exception of their new team member, Ariadne (Ellen Page), the “architect” of the dream space.
I don’t want to give too much of this exciting thriller away. The levels of the story as they dive into the layers of the dream easily could have turned into a convoluted mess, but well crafted writing and storytelling by screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Dark Knight) kept me engaged and enthralled the entire time. But as Cobb says in the movie, “Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” In comparison, Inception felt nearly flawless when I was watching it. It was only when I left the theater that I realized there was actually flaws.
While the men filling the roles in Inception are for the most part magnetic and fit the characters well, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page feel a bit out of step. While Page was easily believable as college student, Ariadne, her character’s repeated efforts to form a connection with Cobb felt forced and at times sophisticated beyond the depths of the character.
Gordon-Levitt has grown up and shines as Arthur. A child actor, most famously known for the sitcom “3rd Rock from the Sun”, Gordon-Levitt has consistently worked into his adult years. As the “point man,” he is excellent as Cobb’s right-hand man in the dreams. He also has the most stunt work and it amazing to watch as he battles in zero gravity during spectacular fight sequences that took weeks to film on spinning sets.
Tom Hardy plays the roguish “forger,” Eames, whose job is to impersonate people close to the subject in the dream. His bravado and levity makes you look forward to seeing him on the screen.
Watanabe’s Saito is a smooth businessman, but it seems there should be a bit more ruthlessness in a man whose dreams Cobb and Arthur tried to extract. Murphy, as Robert Fischer, Jr., the soon to be head of the Saito’s rival company, is believable as the sniveling son, but looses any businessman sophistication to the character’s fear and makes him seem like a lost child at times.
DiCaprio shines as a leading MAN as Cobb. He often brings youthfulness to his characters, but this time, he is a serious man that knows there is the potential for consequences with every move he makes in real life and in the dreams. Unfortunately there is no chemistry between him and his haunting wife, Mal as played by Cotillard, which makes her pivotal character have less of an impact than she should…but as I sit here writing this, I wonder if maybe that was the point.
And that is the flaw or the brilliance of Inception, we don’t know if the flaws are intentional or brilliant filmmaking. It is up to the viewer to decide what is just a dream and what is reality.
The score and the special effects are fantastic as the trailer indicates. There is no denying that it maintains the dark visuals and bombastic soundtrack that have become Nolan’s hallmarks. The issue is that if you have seen the trailer on IMAX, you already have seen the moments worth seeing on IMAX. Most of the special effects are not as big as the rolling up cityscape and the collapsing buildings that are seen in the trailer and I was perfectly content seeing it on a regular movie screen.
Although I see flaws, more than I can mention without letting you in on more than you want to know, Inception is still a great movie that will keep you captivated until the very end. Put it on your must see list this summer and just be prepared for anything during the movie and for lively, thoughtful discussions about it afterwards.
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