When Christopher Nolan’s mind bending thriller came out this summer, I headed to the theater eager to see what the deal was with the much buzzed film. And I have to say, it was pretty engaging to say the least. It took a while to set up the world of the film, and you really had to pay close attention to half understand everything that was going on, but I think that was part of the beauty of the film.
For those who aren’t familiar - Inception is about people who have the ability to insert themselves into other people’s dreams to extract information. In the beginning of the film, we see Dom (Leo DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in the middle of a dream sequence where they are trying to steal valuable business information from someone’s dream.
They are then approached by Mr. Saito, who wants them to not just steal ideas from someone’s subconscious, but plant an idea in a target’s mind, something he calls “Inception.” He promises if Dom takes the job and succeeds, that he will clear him of murder charges for the death of his wife, and allow him to return to the U.S. to be with his children. (We later learn the details of his wife’s death, and we also see her often as she manifests within Dom’s dreams, often being quite a hindrance to his goals).
Is this complicated enough for you? It gets better. As Dom assembles a team to help him with the Inception assignment, we learn more and more about traveling into people’s subconscious, particularly with a visually stunning sequence where Dom takes Ariadne (Ellen Page) into his subconscious and shows her how to be an “architect,” essentially creating environments for them to inhabit within people’s subconscious.
I could keep going in great detail, but let’s just put it this way — the shit’s complicated. And I think that is both the beauty and the hiccup in this film. It makes you think (and proved with it’s high box-office gross that the American public is still willing to think at the movies), but there are times when your mind twists up like a pretzel trying to get to all the nuances as to what exactly is happening.
The actual act of inception is set to take place during a flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. The team then descends into a three-layer dream, all of which is very hard to keep track of…but awesome to watch. While the tension and action of this part of the film keeps you constantly on the edge of your seat, one scene that really stands out as excellent is a fight scene with Arthur in the hallway of a hotel. The effects in this scene are amazing, and make for one of the most memorable moments of the film.
Without getting too much into the dream levels (because I’ll probably confuse myself too much), we finally get to a place where most everyone gets out of the dream, but Dom is left behind...meaning he could be left in “limbo,” a subconscious level where he could be trapped forever.
Somehow (I’m not going to pretend I even understand how this all happens), Dom finds Mr. Saito in the dream, after many years have passed (but this is only several hours in real time), and they remember their agreement, which lets them wake up on the airplane, alongside everyone on their team, safe and sound. We see Dom getting off and going through security, and … GETTING THROUGH! Could it all be true? Did the Inception work? Did Mr. Saito really follow through on his promise to rid Dom of the charges, and now everything can be okay and he can live with his children?
Well… I guess we will never really know. Because the last scene of this movie ends with the spinning of Dom’s top. Now this probably sounds pointless to you, but let me explain. While traveling within a dream, people carry a “totem” with them to help them stay grounded and know if they are in a reality or a dream world. Dom’s totem is a top. If he spins it and it lands, he knows he’s in reality. If it keeps on spinning and spinning, he’s in a dream. After Dom is reunited with his children at the end of the film, he spins his top to test reality… and guess what? The movie ends without us seeing if that top stops or not. This could be seen by some as infuriating, after investing so much energy into trying to follow the plot, and ultimately never knowing the final outcome of the movie. But I liked it. I’m sure it’s sparked countless debates amongst friends as to what really happened, and it actually made people think. It kind of reminds me of the ending to the greatest movie of all time: A League of Their Own. Did Dottie drop the ball on purpose? It’s one of life’s unanswered questions. Add the ending to Inception to the list.
I’d like to give more detailed commentary about what I enjoyed about this film, but the plot synopsis took up so much time and energy that I’m slowly fading…into…sub consciousness… So here are a few comments: awesome visual effects in this film, I think it will take the Oscar for that category. Acting was good, but I don’t think it was really something that was highlighted in this movie. I mean, obviously the performances needed to be real, and they were, and they also included a lot of physical stuff that was done well. But I think this movie was more about the story and the effects. The characters almost seemed secondary, mere pawns as we learned about a crazy new world.
In all, this movie was a welcome change to the romcoms and BLOCKBUSTERS of the summer…it was smart (maybe a bit too smart), and still managed to be thrilling. I applaud Nolan & team for bringing us something new and different. But am I applauding in real life, or is it just a dream? We’ll never know.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5 on the Marci scale.
0 comments:
Post a Comment