Is it all just a dream?
In the middle of a summer of lackluster sequels and unimaginative ideas, has the creator of the cult hit Memento put together a movie with just as fantastic a concept? Did he get an actor of the caliber of Leonardo DiCaprio to star? Did he assemble a supporting cast with hot young talents, well-respected veterans and a couple of the actors he’s used to great effect in his Batman movies?
Is a thought-provoking action flick also the best movie of the summer?
No, you’re not dreaming, but you’ll question what’s real and what isn’t as you remain glued to Christopher Nolan’s Inception.
Little has been said about Inception’s plot, and well, that’s half the fun anyway. To put it briefly, Cobb (DiCaprio) and his specialized team-for-hire have figured out how to enter the subconscious of another person and slip into their dreams. It’s a form of corporate espionage -- they do so to extract an idea from that person’s head and use it to their advantage. Now, the powerful head of an international energy company wants Cobb to instead get their target to actually create an idea he can use – it’s not an extraction mission, it’s one of “inception.”
First, they need to create a dream for their target, so Cobb ends up training a bright young student (Ellen Page) who can be the architect of a multi-layered dreamscape.
If your head isn’t spinning already, it will as you see it all unfold like an M.C. Escher drawing brought to three-dimensional life. It brings to life all kinds of musings we’ve had about dreams. Why can’t you die in your dreams? Why do you wake up when you’re falling? How come the setting often changes? And how did you get to where you are in your dream (did you ever notice the plot of a dream starts in the middle)?
But like television’s dearly-departed Lost, Inception isn’t just about playing with your head (I wonder if Losties will pick up on what I think is Nolan’s homage to Lost?). Nolan isn’t just the creator of mind game plots like Memento; he’s the creative force behind the most recent Batman movies – and Inception has action worthy of the Caped Crusader. It also has a dream lineup of interesting characters played by great actors -- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger, Cillian Murphy, Pete Postlethwaite and Oscar winners Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard (who pulls off a varied performance as Cobb’s dream girl – she’s alluring, saintly and menacing depending on the dream.
Their performances all support DiCaprio, who is getting to be more of an action hero than ever before. He’s also playing a tortured soul for the second time this year (after the also reality-bending ShutterIsland, let’s hope he’s relaxing somewhere with his feet firmly on the ground).
No matter how twisted or ludicrous a dream gets, you will buy into it. Nobody ever does anything corny like sit straight up, look at the camera and scream. The only ones screaming will be Nolan’s Hollywoodrivals – who are probably wishing they had Cobb in their employ. The gem of an idea behind Inception would have been worth stealing.