Review: Inception
Christopher Nolan's 2000 breakthrough film Memento set up an expectation for complex, intelligent storytelling. Inception secures Nolan's reputation as an outstanding director and writer.
In Memento, Nolan skillfully turned a relatively simple story into a complex thriller by toying with the timeline. In Inception, he's taken a complex story and simplified it by focusing on two things: one final job and the fundamental emotional reason why it's both necessary and more risky than his colleagues realize.
Inception is a science fiction thriller about Extractors, who construct shared dreaming scenarios to steal secrets. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team take corporate espionage to a new level, and after a botched job, are offered a job they can't refuse -- an Inception. Unlike Extraction, where thoughts and memories are stolen, Inception is planting a thought. Inception is thought to be impossible, but Cobb feels up to the job; after all, he's not only in no position to refuse, but his payment includes something he would do anything for.
Cobb isn't alone in doing the impossible; he works with the best, including Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), his pragmatic partner; the too obviously named Ariadne (Ellen Page), a talented "Architect"; and the wily Eames (Tom Hardy). Each has a unique talent to construct and manipulate the dream to meet their goal.
Nolan loves to delve into ambiguous moral motivations, and Inception is no exception. While the storyline is firmly embedded in science fiction territory, like all good science fiction, it's also immersed in murky emotional and ethical realms. Cobb is the best at what he does, but he's paid a price for it that threatens the success of his most ambitious project. Explaining more would detract from the film, which is best experienced without any more background than provided in this review. The movie itself is eloquent enough.
Nolan has proven talent for intelligent and intense storytelling, and working with the right people. The casting decisions yet again work: DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Gordon-Levitt, Page, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy and Michael Caine are all proven talents, watchable in anything they do, and they're not reading phone books here. While the average moviegoer might not recognize Tom Hardy (Bronson, RocknRolla), he's a powerhouse himself. Hardy steals each scene his in, although it's arguable that his character is written that way. With so many talented actors, it might seem like Inception is over-cast, but each brings something mesmerizing to the story. Each actor embodies their role so well, each character is worthy of their own film. They complement each other so well it would seem they've all worked together before.
In addition, Nolan uses many talented crew he's worked with before on his features: cinematographer Wally Pfister, editor Lee Smith, casting director John Papsidera -- all with multiple Oscar and guild nominations among them -- have all worked with Nolan on The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Batman Begins and Memento. Art Director Guy Dyas is no slouch either, having worked on The Cell and Matrix Reloaded, and having multiple nominations from the Art Directors Guild as well. With so much talent on and off the screen, they have no difficulty bringing this high concept story to life. If Inception doesn't earn several nominations, something is seriously wrong with the awards systems.
Being such a high concept story, Inception could easily have been overcomplicated and hard to follow, and just when it started seeming like confusion, explanations were built into the story that seamlessly integrated the complexities of "extraction" and "inception" without a misstep in the pacing. There is so much going on in the film, it's almost -- but not quite -- overwhelming.
Inception is a beautiful mind-bending film sure to become a classic with its hat trick of emotional, intellectual and action thrills guaranteed to leave audiences talking about it for a long time to come. See it sooner than later, as you'll be likely to see it more than once.