Christopher Nolan is one of the most visionary filmmakers working today and his new film, Inception, is a stunning achievement that raises the bar for original filmmaking. It challenges the boundaries of cinematic language and expands the conceptual and thematic dimensions of the narrative art form. Nolan, who has always been fascinated with the subject of dreams and the extraordinary potential of the imagination, wrote Inception over a decade ago but was only able to make it after the success of Dark Knight propelled him to the forefront of A-list directors.
Inception is a highly entertaining, complex and cerebral thriller about a surreal world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion and a single idea within one's mind can be the most dangerous weapon or the most valuable asset. Despite its outlandish premise, the central theme of the story is both personal and universal. At its emotional core is the tragic story of one man’s quest to uncover a long-buried truth and get back home to what he loves most.
Leonardo DiCaprio anchors the film with a low key, intense performance as Dom Cobb, a skilled thief and coveted player in the dangerous world of high stakes corporate espionage. With a reputation for being the best “extractor” in the business, he is the “go to” guy if you’re in the market for stealing valuable secrets. His rare talent for extracting information from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable, has also turned him into an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. He is filled with regret, plagued by unresolved guilt and haunted by the memory of his late wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), who invades his subconscious and messes with his mind in dangerous ways.
A wealthy businessman named Saito (Ken Watanabe) offers Cobb a chance at redemption when he hires him – not to steal an idea but to plant one in the mind of a wealthy rival (Cillian Murphy) – a process known as inception. To get his former life back, Cobb must accomplish the impossible. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his dream team of specialists must pull off the reverse. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But despite their careful planning, a dangerous enemy seems to predict their every move.
For Cobb, something very real is at stake. All his choices, his reactions, and how he deals with the people he’s working with are grounded in that knowledge and are a means to an end: getting back his life. Like Teddy Daniels, DiCaprio’s character in Shutter Island, Cobb is a man with a dark past. He’s an unreliable character who proves unreliable to those around him. He is also the guiding thread of a very complicated story that at one point follows four parallel lines of action as one elaborate dream is layered upon another and then another and another. Nolan helms with intelligence and an architect’s eye for emotional detail. He relies on Cobb to draw the audience through the story’s increasing levels of complexity in a very clear fashion. Nolan never leaves his audience stranded or confused but rather stimulated, engaged and reaching out for greater comprehension as they delve through multiple layers of reality or unreality as the case may be.
Nolan has assembled a top notch international ensemble cast with a remarkable level of talent to play the characters in his story. In addition to DiCaprio, they include Academy Award nominees Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page and Tom Berenger; Oscar winners Marion Cotillard and Michael Caine; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Dileep Rao. The production team is equally impressive and includes three-time Oscar-nominated director of photography Wally Pfister, production designer Guy Hendrix Dyas, two-time Oscar-nominated editor Lee Smith, Oscar-nominated costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, and Oscar-nominated special effects supervisor Chris Corbould. Editor Lee Smith does an impressive job interweaving the multiple realities. The music is by Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
Inception would be a daunting film for any filmmaker to direct, but Nolan has acquired a lot of experience over the years in terms of making big movies and all of it comes into play here as he skillfully blurs the line between perception and reality and explores the insidious nature of ideas and self-delusion. He places high priority on the integrity of the acting and does not allow the large scale approach that the material demands overwhelm the performances. Instead, he pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved practically to lend more plausibility to the proceedings, as opposed to relying heavily on computer effects and green screen. He has created a film with mind-bending visual effects, such as when Paris folds in on itself or a fight sequence takes place in zero gravity. He allows the audience to experience the limitless realities that can only be realized in dream by blending the intimacy and emotion of what might take place in a dream with the massive scope of what our brains can conceive.
The film was shot on location in six countries on four separate continents. It includes enormous sets and impressive sequences, among them a multi-vehicle action sequence complete with a freight train plowing down the middle of the street, gravity-defying sets that were designed to revolve a full 360 degrees, and a set constructed on a giant gimbal that puts everything and everyone on tilt. There’s even an action-packed sequence in the snow that rivals the best Bond film. Zimmer’s haunting, moving score is seamlessly integrated into the overall sound design of the film driving the action relentlessly forward while conveying the strong emotional undercurrent that informs every character’s action across multiple levels of reality.
Inception is an intelligent, imaginative and highly original sci-fi actioner that’s hugely entertaining and proves there are no rules for what the mind can create. Christopher Nolan demonstrates once again that he is an extraordinary filmmaker and delivers a compelling film that is very fresh, very different and also quite personal. Inception promises to be one of the hottest tickets this summer.
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