Rating of
4/4
Must Be Dreaming
Chris Kavan - wrote on 07/25/10
It's about time that an intelligent, original piece of film has finally enjoyed a wide release. Christopher Nolan has crafted another masterpiece. It shares more with Memento than Dark Knight - a more personal journey that delves far into the mind and is much more than about just dreaming.
Nolan is also gifted in that his cast is just as good at acting as he is directing. Leonard DiCaprio wears his guilt well, as the main character Cobb, who only wants to get back to his children after the tragedy with his wife - which his subconscious is constantly bringing back to remind him of his mistake. Marion Cotillard plays that projection and I love her eyes - the emotion there is fantastic.
In order to make his dream a reality, Cobb must gather a team together for a wealthy businessman to make a rival break up his company. The business man is Ken Watanabe, and his team is composed of a researcher - Joseph Gorden-Levitt, an architect - named, appropriately, Ariadne played by Ellen Page, a forger played by Tom Hardy and a druggist played by Dileep Rao. The team needs to invade the mind of Robert Fisher, Jr. - Cillian Murphy, but not to extract an idea, but to plant one - inception.
This is a dangerous proposition, as it requires going much deeper into the subject unconscious and if things don't go exactly as planned, they could wind up in limbo - a sort of formless dreamscape where seconds become eternity and your mind can turn to mush. Time, much like reality, plays a big part in Inception. For every level you go down, the more time passes. A minute in the real world can turn into an hour, a week, a month - a decade.
The key to Inception is providing a "kick" to wake up after being highly sedated. Luckily the drug doesn't affect he inner ear, so a feeling of falling will provide the needed means to awaken. Things are complicated, however, when Fisher turns out to have trained his brain to protect against mind thieves. This leads to the films most exciting moments - a zero-g fight in a hotel hallway, a gun at a snowy fortress, a race through the streets to survive.
The other mind-bending visuals are all about asserting control in dreams - a city that rolls in on itself, a set of endless stairs, a cityscape that crumbles like a sand castle against the tide - stunning visuals that make their mark.
The story is not always easy to follow, but as long as you pay attention (something that doesn't seem to be required for most movies, sadly, these days) you can pick up on the clues. I can see why this is a film people say you need to see twice (or more). Even if you pay strict attention to detail and nuance, Nolan leaves the ending ambiguous. Normally I would say it's a cop out, but in this case it's the perfect way to end the film. In a movie about a dream within a dream within a dream - another layer just makes things even more interesting.
In an age of remakes, sequels and adaptations, it's nice to see something truly original reach for the sky and succeed. Maybe it might give others in Hollywood the same idea.
