Inception is surely this year’s most anticipated film, and perhaps one of the most ambitious and inventive big budget summer blockbusters released in some time. With a plot that takes stunning twists and turns, some critics have said that though they weren’t entirely sure what was going on, they sure enjoyed the ride, and some have downright lambasted the film for being overly difficult or convoluted.
I disagree completely.
Inception is a movie full of complexities and does require that a good deal of attention be spent on it if the viewer hopes to keep up; perhaps a tall order for those moviegoers who enjoy plots to be spread before them like a hors d’oevres platter at a party they’ve crashed. Because Inception is anything but simple, it’s understandable (though unfortunate) that some might be disappointed. It’s for those very complexities however, that I so loved in this movie; for at its he
art, Inception is a love story, involving a man who can’t let go of the past, who treads dangerous ground (nearing disaster in both his personal and professional lives) in preserving his memories as altars to the past, altars where he worships and relives constantly his most cherished memories before a terrible tragedy. A very human tragedy put in motion by seemingly impossible means.
The world of inception is notable for its originality, and
I have to devote some space to it in this review. I’ll try my best not to give away too much of the plot or reveal any spoilers. Dom Cobb(Leonardo DiCaprio) is at the top of his trade, a master in the art of extraction, or of finding secrets hidden in anyone’s mind. He has a team including an architect, whose job it is to construct (never from memory) a world familiar to the subject, or mark, into which they enter and populate with their subconscious-and by extension- darkest secrets.
The forger’s (Tom Hardy’s) job is to study the mannerisms of someone close to the person, forging their personality, and better fooling the dreamer into feeling
comfortable in the carefully constructed dream. Usually, in dreams, when one dies they wake up immediately in real life, but there is also the “kick”, or the sensation of falling, which always wakes the person up immediately. Time too, in dreams, is different. 5 minutes in reality is equivalent to around 1 hour in the dream.
Cobb is given the opportunity to return to his family in exchange for performing the act of inception, which is the exact opposite of extraction. Inception is the planting of an idea. Cobb’s likening of an idea as a parasite is remark
ably apt. An idea is a parasite, one that, after it takes root, grows and develops at an unstoppable rate. The mark is a rival businessman to the man who hires Cobb. For this act, he is assisted by his right hand man (played by Joseph Gordon Levitt in a fantastic and nuanced performance) and a new architect, who proves to be very adept at her job, but also has a severe streak of nosiness. She provokes Cobb into confronting the demons that haunt him, namely his “shade” of a wife Mal,
who appears originally as a somewhat menacing figure, and sabotages nearly everything that Cobb tries to accomplish, but the reasons are best left for you to discover. Suffice it to say, Mal is entirely Cobbs “projection”, fueled only by his guilt, and her appearance in the dreamscapes of others should NOT be happening.
The act of inception is relatively (and I don’t use that term lightly) similar to that of extraction: a world is constructed for the subject to enter and to fill with his own thoughts and secrets. This particular mark however, Robert Fischer Jr. (an excellent Cillian Murphy), throws the team for a loop when they are attacked by his subconscious. The subconscious proves an unlikely villain, and the other people
in these dreams are the projection of the subconscious. And the subconscious doesn’t like it when strangers go traipsing around in its territory, and seek to eliminate all threats, namely, Cobb and his team. A threatening new dimension is added when we learn that if discovered and “killed” by the subconscious, the intruders are relegated to “limbo”, a place of "raw, infinite subconcious" from where there is no coming back-and, well, your brains will be completely "scrambled" when, and if you return. To avoid and trick the subconscious, the team must travel deeper and deeper into the different maze-like levels of the dream, and the further they go, the more dreams created within the original dream, the less stable the operation becomes, and most importantly, the more “kicks” needed to propel themselves out, what rapidly turns into a nightmare. Cobb must not only play a deadly game of cat and mouse with adversaries from the mind of another, but the sinister forces locked deep within his own mind. Ironically, we watch Cobb become possessed by what he himself termed the most resilient of parasites, the idea. His idea, seemingly so harmless, the idea that the success of this inception will bring him absolution of a sort, and a return to his family begin to drive him completely. It blinds him to the dangers and signs he cannot see as he aims to complete this task by any means necessary, putting his sanity and the lives of his team at risk.
Hopefully, I’ve given a teensy bit of an idea as to what you’re in for. This movie goes deep. The love story is heartbreaking, and the worlds we see are visually stunning, and startlingly intricate. The action scenes were exceptionally well done, and the revelation of just why Joseph Gordon Levitt defies gravity in the trailers will fascinate. The singular image, of the turning bodies twined together, which I saw in the trailers, hooked me immediately, and became indelible to me. It seemed a surrealists dream. Gravity and time are just two of the elements that Nolan bends expertly to construct this story, and the further depth and meaning to the movie will surely be revealed with repeated viewings.
I won’t say much on the ending of inception, but the top (sure to become a visual icon for some time), plays a large role, and my heart nearly stopped in wonder and anticipation. Inception gave me what few movies do: a sense of true wonder at what I see taking place. It gave me something I took home to think about, and surely will think about for some time. Before this, I think my favorite Nolan film was the prestige, and I feel that the theme of idea as parasite was explored in this film
as well. Angiers (played by Hugh Jackman) sees a trick performed by a rival magician, and cannot understand how he’s done it, and drives himself near to madness trying to discover just what he does. This idea, that he must understand and perform the trick himself completely takes over his life, and the sacrifice he makes, revealed at the end remains for me one of the most thought provoking endings I’ve ever witnessed on film.
When you see this movie, keep your eyes peeled and remember, as in any Christopher Nolan film, time is arbitrary. Don’t be daunted by the prospect of a bit of confusion; viewings of this film are in order. This film is a challenge, and in the words of the forger, Eames, “you musn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger” filmgoers.
