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One can only imagine what goes through writer/director Christopher Nolan’s mind on any given day. While the rest of us are caught up in mundane things like paying the bills and cooking dinner and picking the kids up from soccer practice, Nolan is imagining stories about a guy who suffers from short-term memory loss—told in reverse chronological order, of course—or about people who travel through each other’s dreams. If you could wander though his dreams, it would probably be like visiting some kind of twisted amusement park—one that would be well worth the price of admission. But, until then, you’ll just have to be content to buy yourself a jumbo tub of popcorn and immerse yourself in his latest mind-boggling masterwork.
In Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Dom Cobb, a corporate spy who explores people’s dreams, stealing valuable information from their subconscious. But his latest client, Saito (Ken Watanabe), wants more than simple extraction; he wants inception. He wants Cobb to journey into the subconscious of his young competitor, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), and convince him to divide his father’s empire.
The job is risky—and some say impossible—but Saito is powerful enough to give Cobb the one thing he really wants: his old life back. So Cobb assembles a team of architects, chemists, and conmen to try to figure out how to travel deep into Fischer’s dreams and seamlessly plant an idea. But, as they’re preparing for the job, it becomes clear to Cobb’s young new architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), that Cobb is keeping a troubling secret—one that could sabotage their job and put them all in danger.
If you’ve ever woken up from a particularly intense dream feeling breathless and shaken and disoriented—even forgetting, for a brief moment or two, who and where you are—then you’ve already experienced something like Inception. It’s haphazard and bewildering, loud and distorted. Sometimes, things feel just slightly out of place (like Page, who doesn’t quite fit into her role). Sometimes, it’s even frustrating (and a bit uncomfortable, too), as Hans Zimmer’s thunderous score drowns out whole chunks of dialogue. But it’s all so brilliantly and thoughtfully concocted—and the deeper you get, the more captivating it is.
Like Nolan’s 2008 mega-hit, The Dark Knight, Inception is enormous in scope: a big-budget spectacle that guides viewers through astonishing dream worlds, exploring opulent palaces and snowy fortresses—even bending the streets of Paris and folding them onto each other. Visually, it’s simply astounding.
Of course, a lot of summer blockbusters look pretty spectacular—but that’s often as far as they go. They focus their attention on the big-budget effects—the massive setpieces and the eye-popping graphics—without much regard for the story. But Inception isn’t just another pretty picture. Though the scale is immense, the storytelling is intricate. Nolan pays close attention to the details, designing a thoughtful plot that travels through multiple levels of dreams. The result is like a cleverly-crafted, Ocean’s Eleven-style heist, set inside The Matrix. It’s perplexing and intense, yet, in the end, it all makes perfect sense.
Still, just one viewing of this pitch-perfect puzzler won’t be enough. So when you head out to the theater to see it, you might want to block off 10 hours right away, to allow for four viewings. Even then, I suspect that you’ll uncover just the tip of the iceberg.
Inception is the film that I’ve been waiting all year to see: a big-budget thriller that pays as much attention to the writing as it does to the effects. Thanks to Christopher Nolan and his amusement park mind, this year’s overabundance of mediocre movies is now little more than a fading memory.
DVD Review:
Just as Christopher Nolan’s Inception was this summer’s Movie To See, it’s also this winter’s Movie To Buy.
If you pick up a copy on DVD, though, you’ll find just four extras listed on the special features menu. They’re surprisingly short—just two to three minutes each—but they’ll give you a fascinating look behind the scenes of the film, covering everything from the dreamy concept to the sets and effects.
Of course, for casual viewers, just a few minutes of features will be more than enough. But if you love this Oscar-worthy adventure as much as I do, you’ll want to spring a few more bucks for the three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo release.
