Inception
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Inception is a science fiction film written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight), but it’s also – on some level – a generic heist movie. Except the heist takes place in the subconscious. It's a really great premise: what if people could enter a shared dreamscape? And how safe would someone’s thoughts be inside a communal dream? These ideas (and several others) are explored in a well-thought-out script that supposedly took Nolan the better part of a decade to complete.
The opening sequence of the movie takes its time while explaining the basic rules of shared dreaming and introducing the characters. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an idea thief – an extractor – who is on the run. He only wants to do one more job so that he can go home. He assembles a team with the point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and the forger Eames (Tom Hardy) – both badasses – as well as a newcomer “architect” Ariadne (Ellen Page). These roles are explained as the story moves forward and we learn new things as Ariadne does…the practice run where she becomes curious about the physics of the dream world is a great reveal. (You’ll probably know what’s coming if you’ve seen the trailer and, really, I kinda wish I hadn’t.) Hans Zimmer’s score is very effective for producing the desired moods throughout the movie and it’s my favorite film score since, well…I can’t remember the last soundtrack I liked as much as this one. Also, like a dream within a dream, the story keeps revealing new layers, adding to the complexity of the narrative. Bit by bit, we learn new details about Cobb and his emotional issues too. Unfortunately, his backstory is the only characterization to be found in the film. (Though, if any of the other characters had been fleshed out the film would have been much longer than the already long two and a half hours.)
- Score
- 9/10
There’s one scene (with a van) that contradicts the logic of their world and the “snow compound” scene feels too much like a video game sequence…it’s easily the weakest element of the film. (Speaking of video games, fun fact: Hans Zimmer also scored Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.) One of the characteristics of the dreams is faster brain processing, so time progresses at different rates in and out of the dreams. When the characters dream inside of dreams this multiplies the amount of time and – because of this – the climax of the film occurs on several levels simultaneously. The synergistic effect of several climaxes was something I’ve never encountered in a film before and Christopher Nolan deserves some credit: in a (real) world filled with reimaginings, sequels and remakes, he’s crafted a very highly recommended, incredibly creative original story. And the ending is simply excellent.
