OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the best in the dangerous art of extraction: stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb's rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible--inception. Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists have to pull off the reverse; their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.
This summer, your mind is the scene of the crime.
DIRECTED BY: Christopher Nolan
WRITTEN BY: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine
STUDIO: Warner Bros.
OFFICIAL SITE:INCEPTIONMOVIE.COM
Ideas and information reside within our minds, sometimes buried in our subconscious. Those ideas, that information, can be extracted - but can they also be implanted?
This is the premise behind Chris Nolan's INCEPTION, in which Leonardo DiCaprio portrays an expert at invading people's minds while they sleep, to find and steal information from within the targets' dreams.
Unable to return home to his children in the USA due to an initially unexplained crime, DiCaprio is offered a chance to erase the charges against him if he accepts a job offer: implant an idea into a corporate CEO's mind without the man realizing the idea wasn't his own, in a process called "inception."
To do this, DiCaprio must assemble a team of experts to help prepare and navigate a complex web of dreams-within-dreams to fool the target. But DiCaprio is haunted by guilt and memories that he brings with him into the dreams he enters, causing them to manifest and threaten the entire operation.
Visually, the film is terrific. It's not merely the great imagery and effects themselves, but also the specific choice of images and the manner in which they play a role in the unfolding story, that are impressive. Pay close attention, because certain of the imagery is particularly important and speaks to larger narrative aspects of the film. The images may be subtly important as sign posts at times. In short, while they certainly do their job as exciting visual elements, these sequences are more than just eye candy.
I found the pacing to be impressive as well, each scene has a clear beginning, middle, and climax that lead to the next scene. And these scenes combine into sequences with clear beginnings, middles, and climaxes leading into the next combination. And so on. Likewise, the different levels of dream-state in the film have their own internal framework and beginnings, middles, and climaxes. It's rare that a film is structured so well, as this is something that has to be worked out at the story level, the scripting level, the filming level, the editing level, and so on. That Nolan accomplished it with so little deviation is a feat perhaps as impressive as just about anything else in the film.
DiCaprio gives a great performance, heartbreaking in his desperation and maybe more heartbreaking in how hard he tries -- but fails -- to mask that desperation. He keeps it bottled up at first, but it is ever-present and he allows it to dance behind his eyes in early scenes. We see it peaking out, though, in his sweat and unease that show themselves so quickly and easily when things don't go as expected. But the first overt cracks appear when he is offered the chance to return home and get back the life he is so desperate to regain. It is from that moment on that his inner demons really start to show themselves, and when his desperation begins to seep out of his subconscious and increasingly endanger him and those around him.
I was impressed by DiCaprio's performance earlier this year in "Sutter Island", but what he does in "Inception" is on a short-list of particularly standout performances he's given this decade (the others being GANGS OF NEW YORK, THE AVIATOR, and THE DEPARTED). Always good, DiCaprio shines here and I would not be surprised to see him earn his third Oscar nomination for a lead performance (the others being for THE AVIATOR and BLOOD DIAMOND). I've been rather surprised that one of the most consistent criticisms of the film revolves around DiCaprio's performance and claims that it is cold and unemotional. I found it to be emotional, restrained, and with a great deal of nuance -- often relying as much on what he doesn't say or do, where he looks when he speaks, and other such elements.
Cillian Murphy was the strongest supporting actor in the film, partly because he is one of only two supporting characters with any real arc. All restraint and coolness, Murphy mirrors Cobb's own slow reveal of the turmoil that in fact defines him. His sorrow is manifest any time his father is mentioned, and Murphy takes a relatively small role and wrings a whole lot out of it.
The review continues after the jump!
Marion Cotillard is the only other supporting role with any arc, and although she is mostly a device with only one purpose and intention, that is of course by design and is even necessary. And however much Cotillard's character might be limited to the role of "spoiler" (her name in the film, Mal, means bad or evil in different languages), she certainly does a lovely job as the femme fatal and has an unexpected moment of revelation and deep sorrow later in the film. Her role has been criticized by some as being too much of a "prop" for primarily visceral enjoyment, but that criticism seems to rather glaringly miss the central premise about indeed exactly who and what she is in the story. It's akin to complaining that Batman's suit reminds one too much of a bat.
The rest of the cast is very good at what they do, but honestly none really stood out to me as being especially praise-worthy. This isn't so much a criticism of any performance, but rather just a lack of praise of any of those performances. I've no complaints about them, but nor was there anything especially notable about them, either.
I will admit that I was anticipating a strong supporting performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and was surprised that he didn't have any big "performance" scenes and actually had maybe the least amount of direct give-and-take personal interaction with DiCaprio in the film. Ultimately, the fact of a great lead performance and two stand-out supporting performances (Murphy and Cotillard) amid otherwise good supporting roles with no real criticisms is a winning combination.
The story does a miraculous job of being complicated and insanely layered while easy to keep up with and navigate. Or is it? That's the beauty of this film: you can't be certain, and it's no spoiler to reveal that the deeper the team gets the harder it is to be sure what will happen next or what DiCaprio is really hiding from the rest of them, or when he might lose his ability to control his own subconscious in the midst of someone else's dream. Uncertainty and ambiguity become governing themes early in the film (the opening sequence, and then pretty much each sequence introducing us to a new character, rely heavily on reinforcing the principle of ambiguity), and are true not only for the audience but for the characters.
There will be things in this film that most people are likely not to notice on a first viewing -- you might look away at your popcorn a moment, you might be watching another part of the screen, a noise in the audience might distract you for a split second, or you might "see" it but not process what you actually witnessed. Such things can at times be central to what you think about a scene, how you understand what's happening, and so will add up to significantly shape your overall impression and interpretation of the film. It's been said that you will want/need to see "Inception" multiple times, and that is very true. Because there is more than one story to be seen, and much to consider and analyze. Two viewings is not enough for me, and so I'll be returning to the theater again in a week or two. And I'm sure I'm come away with yet more I hadn't noticed or thought about previously.
INCEPTION is likely the first definite contender for the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and seems certain to get a nomination in both categories. I'd also guess it's already pretty close to a lock to win the Oscar for editing, in light of the amazing complexity of the narrative elements that had to be arranged and aligned, not to mention the fact this was achieved in a way not only consistent but in fact easy to follow despite the complexity.
Most audience will embrace the film with enthusiasm -- even viewers who might suffer some measure of confusion will still find so much to appreciate and enjoy that any confusion will ultimately be insignificant to their overall viewing experience. I strongly suspect the film will be a bigger hit than most people expect. As of its fifth day in release, the film has topped $100 million in global box office (the current $99 million doesn't include any foreign box office since the first weekend), and should top the domestic $100 million mark by Thursday.
INCEPTION is one of my favorite films of the year, and is easily the best film of the year so far. I highly recommend it, with a grade of A+, and I think the vast majority of viewers will thoroughly enjoy it.
NOW... as for the hype, and the question of whether it lives up to it. I've been pretty vocal about my views regarding film critics who have allowed their reaction to "hype" to influence their reviews, or who allowed their "grudge" or hard feelings toward certain fans/genres to impact their assessment of this film.
With all of that said, and keeping in mind my own entirely positive and enthusiastic review, I have to admit honestly that the film did not, in fact, completely blow my mind the way I expected it to. This is not an assertion of disappointment with the film itself, it is rather a fact regarding what my personal expectations were. I went in expecting something that would push aside all previous films this year and walk confidently away with the title of "best thing I've seen all year." I must, however, admit that while my ENJOYMENT of "Inception" does indeed beat my enjoyment of just about everything else so far this year, in terms of my personal assessment of the film's entire quality, I feel that a couple of films match or beat INCEPTION -- THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES and GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO.
The former of those two films, with its final unexpected moments, was like a blow to the gut that had me thinking and rethinking every manner of moral question and expectation (not just of films, but of personal morality and responsibility). The characters were so alive and vivid, it was as if they continued living their lives after the camera went off -- and I longed to know how they went on with their lives, how in fact they COULD go on.
The latter of those films, while not containing the same level of near-perfection in story and character, still achieved an entirely unexpected success on every level and crafted one of the most interesting stories with some of the most compelling characters in any film this year, all within a premise that could easily have been just another entry in its subgenre but instead rose above and beyond.
With INCEPTION, as great as it was, I knew it was about DiCaprio as a man entering dreams to implant an idea so that he can win a chance to return to his family. The details and nuances were still a mystery, but I knew the very basic premise, and I feel that the film didn't offer the same sort of surprises or the degree of unexpected developments/themes as did those other films. Now, not to say that comparing it to other films is a way to claim a shortcoming -- my point is not about this as a criticism of "Inception" itself, but instead is about whether "Inception" was the best, most innovative film of the year.
The film has already been ranked as the third-best film of all time on IMDB. Third-best film in history? No matter how much I like the film -- and in case any fans are upset at me for these remarks, let me remind them that it's my personal favorite film of the year and in the top-three with an A+ rating and I highly recommend it -- I cannot agree that it is the third-best film ever made. I can't even say I think it's in the top-ten films ever made. And I don't think it's Nolan's best film either.
It's a great film, but not "one of the greatest in history."
However, "one of the greatest" is kind of what I was expecting, due to the buzz and hype and some early reviews and reactions and my own personal anticipation (in part based on my views regarding Nolan's great directing and writing skills, the talent of everyone involved, plus the aforementioned buzz, hype, reviews, etc). So there's no way for me to deny that I feel there is some overstatement in some of the comments and hype about the film among a segment of reviewers and fans. That's their opinion, I respect it and I can appreciate why they loved it, and I do agree that it's a great film, but I feel that the hype and buzz did reach a level that was probably almost impossible for any film to really live up to -- I'll even note that while I love THE DARK KNIGHT, think it is the greatest film of the genre, it's one of my favorite films of all time, and I think it deserved an Oscar nod for Best Director and Best Picture, I think it was also an overstatement when a segment of fans started voting it as the best film of all time, and I don't think it is actually literally one of the top-five greatest film achievements in the history of cinema.
So yes, we are of course talking about a type of hype that was a bit outrageous, but that hype was out there, as were reviews from some critics who were unrestrained in their enthusiastic endorsement of INCEPTION as a film that would wrap our heads into pretzels and make us rethink the way movies are made. And with regard to that level and segment of hype, I do think the hype was overstated in many instances.
I do not recommend any changes to the film, and I stress how much I like this film. I will see it for a third time in the next couple of weeks, and then will probably attend it at IMAX with my in-laws sometime soon as well. And I am still pondering and assessing the different layers and interpretations of the film, still coming to new conclusions and loving every minute of it. High praise, I would think, that is unchanged despite my feeling that some of the buzz and hype was overstated. I won't say "the film doesn't live up to the hype" since I don't think honestly that the film HAD to live up to artificial levels of hype created by other people and by ourselves (me included, in terms of my expectations).
GRADE: A+
INCEPTION opened in theaters everywhere on July 16, 2010.
Longtime BOF'er and site contributor Mark Hughes is a screenwriter living in Maryland.
He is an avid film fan and a longtime collector and reader of comics.
