Christopher Nolan's Inception is a movie that fully embraces the definition of “ambition”. The concept, the story, the visuals... everything dreams big and not only succeeds, but soars! Great film making is nothing new from Nolan, who in my opinion has to make a bad film or even a sub-par movie for that matter. He knows his craft, but more than that, he truly understands how to tell a story and connect to his audience.
Inception especially connects with me because its subject matter, dream, is something I truly find fascinating in my own life. I don't know if I would classify myself as a true “lucid” dreamer, but every night I enjoy very vivid dreaming and more often than am somewhat or fully conscious of the fact that I am indeed dreaming. My dream reality is surprisingly consistent and coherent as far as its structure (locations, themes, even continuity... I can recall countless dreams) and so dreaming for me is really like an awesome sandbox. So as I learned more and more about Inception leading up to its release, I was really excited to see it!
It didn't disappoint.
Inception, while relatively simple in its concept, features a very complex plot. It is a myriad of interconnections, character study, layers, mystery and action. Take all that, weave it together with the power of the mind and imagination and you have a very ambitious mix indeed. There is no doubt that Inception demands more than a single viewing to pick up all the details and fully appreciate the nuance throughout. Not only the plot, but the film itself is layer upon layer. It should come as no surprise then that Nolan had been working on Inception on and off for more than a decade. Thankfully, he took his time to realize it, because the film lacks absolutely nothing as a result.
The story is set in modern day (near future?) and assumes that humans have developed technology that allows them to tap into the dream state, even allowing multiple dreamers to share a single dream and fully interact with each other. The mind is the ultimate sanctuary, and with this dream technology comes the ability to steal information right out from someone's mind. This is where our protagonist Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) comes in.
Dom is an architect, someone imaginative and skilled enough to literally create the architecture of someone's dream. He is the best in the world and specializes in dream security – he teaches clients how to proactively protect information and the secrets they posses from the would be thief even while asleep. It's a fine job, but Dom has another problem – he is wanted for the murder of his wife and cannot return home to the United States lest he be arrested.
The technology of induced dreaming is not without its risks. Normally, a person hooked up to a dream machine dreams (experiencing accelerated time because of increased brain activity, the brain can process faster while asleep) and then wake up to a “kick”, some sort of signal or physical trigger to wake them up or if they die in the dream. But that is only single level dreaming. It is also possible to create a dream inside a dream where time is accelerated even further and the risks become deadly real because the mind can become lost if the dreamer becomes untethered from reality. If they die in a dream within a dream, they become lost in “limbo” or unstructured dreaming and live a lifetime in the dream before actually dying. They can't wake up because they don't realize they are still dreaming unless they have a totem, a personalized item that acts as a test to let them know when they are dreaming or not.
Dom and his wife explored dreams together and lived a lifetime together in a dreamworld they constructed before ultimately waking up. Only once they returned to reality, Dom's wife Mol became haunted with the notion that she was still dreaming and eventually killed herself in an attempt to wake up. As a result, Mol's memory now haunts Dom's dreams along with the fact that he cannot prove that she killed herself.
However, one man, an energy baron named Saito (Ken Watanabe) has the connections that can wipe Cobb's slate clean and allow him to return home to his two children. All he requires from Dom is the seemingly impossible – inception, or the planting of a foreign idea into someone else' mind all the while making them believe it is their own idea. Allegedly it has never been successfully accomplished and despite the risks, Cobb is certain he can pull it off. You see, he did it to Mol.
Saito's target is a competing business empire that is about to pass from father to son, Maurice Fischer to Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). He wants Cobb and his team to plant the idea to break up the business in Robert Fischer's head in order to save his own business from collapsing. At this, Cobb recruits his team: his partner Arthur (Joesph Gorden-Levitt), protogé architect Ariadne (Ellen Page) and associates Eames (Tom Hardy) and Yusuf.
The team develops an intricate plan to put Fischer to sleep on an overseas flight and then infiltrate his dreams... three levels in, an extremely dangerous task. Long story short, they run into serious snags once into the dreaming and the mission suddenly becomes a challenge to survive in addition to achieving inception with Fischer. If they fail, Saito doesn't pull strings and Cobb is arrested upon landing in the US. But what poses the bigger threat – Fischer's mental defenses or Cobb's personal demons?
As previously alluded to, Inception works exceptionally well as an action thriller. Once in the dreamworld, the story keeps a frenetic pace and genuinely keeps the audience guessing what will happen next. There is even a nice homage by Nolan to the ski chase scene in the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The visual effects of the film are also beautifully realized, creating a stunning world of the dream and seemingly endless imagination. The film's ability to convey the imagined reality of a dreamscape so successfully is truly an impressive accomplishment! Nolan's talented cast turns in a strong performance to boot.
Inception also features Nolan's signatures of theatrics and diversion. He loves to keep you guessing and second guessing, which I do believe is a key to fully understanding this film. Everyone has their theory as to what really happens and, naturally, after a few viewings and some contemplation, I have my own.
Ultimately, Inception is another hugely successful addition to Nolan's impressive body of work that already includes Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and it gets my highest recommendation! 10/10
H-DoGG's Theory – SPOILERS
To me, what puts Inception way over the top is what I have come to describe as it's self-manifestation – the film IS a working example of inception for the audience.
The film's final shot with Mol's spinning totem seems to be the focal point for viewer debate and what I see Nolan's final wink. The audience's doubt lingers throughout the film as to whether Cobb is really awake or still stuck inside a dream. We are given little bits of nuance or doubt inducing information that constantly keep us unsure of what actually is real in the back of our mind. So the story plays out and once it reaches the end we want to think Cobb actually made it home, but there is that final shot. Did the totem tip over or spin indefinitely?
How does the notion of inception figure in? Well, we like to pride ourselves the perceptive audience, having picked up all the little clues the film gave us, and ultimately we aren't fooled by the happy ending. And that is just it – we are sure we arrived at that truth all by ourselves – Cobb is still dreaming. We believe it be our own original deduction and idea based on evidence. But it isn't. Nolan planted the idea through the story. Inception. The story actually was a happy ending with Cobb making it home to his children.
Granted this is just my theory, but what cemented it for me was a quote from Nolan I read in a magazine awhile back after seeing the film. To paraphrase, Nolan was asked about the abundant fan theories and notably the ones that say Cobb was still dreaming. His response, “In watching the movie, I didn't take that away from it at all.”
