Inception

Yes, yes, let's start by addressing the obvious: this blog had died. I say had, because Inception made me write this movie reaction (a review of sorts - but not really)

The movie is written/ directed by Christopher Nolan, in whose fine mind it reportedly gestated for over a decade. Looking at his filmography (Insomnia, Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight) it is clear that this... let's call it creative/ experimental cinema... is where he flexes his noodle more than for the more commercial flicks. The effort and passion he employs is apparent in each of his movies, but one can tell he enjoys, well, the inception of his own original ideas better than adaptation of someone else's (as was the case with Batman)!

Inception is easily the best science fiction movie I have seen since the Matrix, and the best heist flick I've seen since Ocean's Eleven (the Clooney/ Pitt version). They say some movies make you smarter by association, and this is certainly one of them...

It begins very much in the style of The Dark Knight (TDK). You can tell in the suspenseful background score, the title design, the tint and hue and framing of the picture that Nolan has a TDK hangover; but thankfully, once the story takes off, this is a beast all its own. One could see it as a consummate summer blockbuster in the vein of TDK - the money shots with big things going boom are there, the martial arts are karate-ed, the gunfights and chases are Bond-like, and so on. But in all this gift-wrapping hides a tale so convoluted and emotional, that the candy-floss is barely noticed and the story is impossible to give away or spoil.

This is the story of Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio - looking not boyish at all), a kind of dream hacker, who gets paid to break into people's (sub-conscious) minds while they are in a dream state and steal - anything; industrial secrets, personal truths, whatever. To do this ('extraction') he employs a reliable second in command Arthur (Joseph Gordon Levitt - who I couldn't help but think looks like Heath Ledger) and a posse consisting of a druggist (for the sedatives) a mercenary (for the kick-ass) and an Architect, to design the dream world into which he will draw the subject (victim).

Cobb is very good at what he does, but in the movie, he is desperate and forced by a victim from a failed extraction, Saito (Ken Watanabe) into going for the holy grail in his business - planting an idea in a victim's (Cillian Murphy's) mind, not just stealing it. This - inception - is practically impossible because the victim always recognizes any planted idea as foreign... and it has never been done before, although Cobb says he has done it once...

(Again, with the obvious, yes - an Architect for a virtual world resonates with The Matrix)

DiCaprio is supported by a stellar cast, with some 'Nolan veterans' - Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, and Marion Cotillard in a spooky turn as Cobb's dead wife Mal, who haunts his dreams and is the source of an irredeemable guilt... for Cobb is slowly, possibly, going mad and of course this will have massive repercussions for the mission.

That plot summary would be more story than any average movie would want to handle. But no, this movie is a layered, nuanced, thing and this is but the tip of the iceberg. It is impossible to tell the story - one has to watch it. And to watch it is to experience it, live it, so vivid/ scary/ exciting/ intriguing/ thought-provoking a tale it is.

The performances befit the challenge, with DiCaprio turning in a magnificent performance. Ellen Page (she of Juno) plays very ably Cobb's new Architect who he initiates into the joys and perils of 'extraction', thus serving as our proxy for the exposition. Cotillard in particular, impresses by proving you can be beautiful and scary in lingerie, which... is saying something!

The three 'leads' are followed closely in performance by Murphy and Watanabe, who plays a character similar to the one he played in The Last Samurai, in many ways. Michael Caine is, well, himself and brings his usual sense of grace and helplessness and wisdom to the mandatory Old Man cameo. I suspect he can now do this in his sleep, and still walk away with a Globe or an Oscar!

The visuals of the film (thankfully not gimmicky with fake-3D - though I would've loved IMAX) are gorgeous, and some sequences are downright Hitchcock-ian in composition. The highlights to me were (in no particular order) a city folding on itself, a trick with mirrors, a Parisian street exploding, an elevator ride to the spookiest corners of the mind, weightless fighting in a hotel corridor, and so on. Yes, a LOT of highlights.

The mind-fuck of the year is, without doubt, the last shot in this movie, just as the screen fades to black and the end credits come on, which will make you either stand up and applaud Nolan for having the sheer gumption to show it, or throw bricks and monkey feces at the screen in outrage. For me, it was the former. Not since The Matrix: Reloaded and the conversation with the Architect in that flick have I walked out of the movie hall this... dazed.

On one level, most certainly, this movie is a philosophical inquiry into ideas and dreams and how a single idea can become a life's purpose - or destroy it utterly. There are many, many, reviews out there that will (somewhat pretentiously I might add) wax eloquent on that aspect. Not this one... for this reviewer will save that kind of analysis for a second, perhaps third, fourth, fifth viewing, when he can digest that kind of nuance and not have to constantly keep closing his mouth, and rubbing his eyes in disbelief, and chuckling and shaking his head in admiration.

In conclusion, anyone who has heard me rave for The Dark Knight and the experience that was Avatar in the past two years need take into account only this: those movies, the first a tour-de-force of storytelling and characterization, the second a audio-visual extravaganza (with a horrible plot) couldn't get me to get off my ass and write a review...

My recommendation? Go watch Inception now, and share in the dream! 5 stars/ 10 points/ whatever!