Inception

Day 17/192-Inception: Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard

It is a credit to the good body of work that Christopher Nolan has already built up that Inception has gathered the hype that we have seen already. Ordinarily, a film about dream extractors and architects designing within the realms of the subconscious doesn't exactly sound like your standard Summer blockbuster. But such is Nolan's meticulous and loving approach to film, Warner Bros have given him every backing in making Inception the film he wanted to make. They have not been let down.

So the story goes that Cobb, (DiCaprio) the world's greatest extractor, has been tasked with the impossible; Inception. While normally Cobb delves deep into the mind to extract one's deepest secrets and ideas, it has been suggested that if there was enough skill and preparation involved someone could plant an idea in someone's brain and convince them it was their own.

So Cobb sets about putting a team together for the fabled Inception, with the promise that if he completes the job, he can finally go home. So he puts together the components of his team and gets to work, but as the remnants of his past and familiar memories from his subconscious seek to destroy him, can he plant the idea before it's too late?



Inception is not just a good idea, it is a fully realised, perfectly executed film. Every little detail is in place to reinforce something we have already learned, every new element introduced furthers the story, the characters and the mechanics of the dream-layered world. When a train comes thundering down a busy city street, you can rest assured there is a perfectly good reason, in fact you'd probably be annoyed if it didn't.

The dream ideas lend themselves to some excellent narrative devices, such as the fact that the further into dreams you go, the more time seems to have passed. 20 seconds in reality is a day in a dream, in a dream within a dream, well you get the idea. In this sense, the time it takes to push a button, can be the same amount of time it takes to have a fully-realised shoot-out in the snow, while others roam for days in barren wastelands and it is all completely plausible.

It's not all just flash and CGI, what lies underneath is a perfectly crafted, unique and involving film. Though with all the exposition going on, there isn't a huge amount of time dedicated to character development, that is forgiven, particularly when the character who does recieve a bit of time, Cobb, holds our interest right up to the end, while Ariadne (Ellen Page) serves as our man in the field as the audience, sneaking into Cobb's dreams and showing us the details of his past that we would otherwise be unable to see, making him endearing and furthering our involvment in his cause.



Inception will sit in your brain for a long time after the credits roll, I for one had a rather strange dream last night! But it is the open ending that will leave debates raging for years. It is testament to the script that every tiny hole can be explained away and patched right up again, no stone is left unturned and when you consider that at times in this film we are simultaneously shown the deep subconscious mind of four different people in the form of varying locations and circumstances, Nolan has done a fantastic job to keep it all together.

It is definitely not over-complicated considering the subject matter and is instead rewarding viewing, as you invest in the characters, when they decide to go deeper, you can share with them a fleeting feeling of excitement giving way to dread and you feel very much at their side.

A lesser filmmaker could have made this film with no regard for the audience but that is where Nolan's strength lies. He has made a deep, involving, labyrinthine story which is heavy on exposition and high on conversation fodder. You get the feeling as you leave the cinema that Inception will be a film to remember and one we will be talking about for a long time to come.

10/10