Inception

When I heard about this movie, I couldn't tell what the story was from the trailers. I also knew it would come out during my family vacation to the eastern states so I decided not to worry about this film just yet. In a diner in Palmyra, New York, I picked up a newspaper and saw a review for this film which was very positive and I got a little excited. Just like “The Prestige” was a two-hour magic trick, Christopher Nolan’s other film “Inception” is a “dream within a dream”. You lose all sense of reality, at least that is the case if you saw it in IMAX like I did. There have been times where a film would affect me so much mentally that I would physically overload. “District 9” made me so sick that I almost threw up. “Inception” made me dizzy and faint at one point as my mind tried to keep up with the story during an emotionally intense moment in the film. Nolan took a long time creating the script and it shows. The story is great, the acting is well done and there is a good mix of different genres. The result is something fresh and very entertaining. For the fourth time in a row, Nolan has impressed me with his talent.

The story of this film was well thought up as evidenced by the Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (I wish it had won). To further explain the value of the story of "Inception", I would like to momentarily compare this film to “Avatar”. It took Nolan more than a decade to go from initial idea to finished film and the same can be said for James Cameron in his creation of “Avatar”. Why did this fact create so much more hype for “Avatar”? It is because Cameron was highly publicizing that fact so as to make the film better than it actually was. As I mentioned in my review for “Avatar”, Cameron waited all those years for technology to catch up to his vision (note the word “vision”). He wanted the film to look cool and the story took a back seat. Cameron came up with the script and shelved it where as Nolan spent his many years re-writing and refining his script for “Inception”. He also wanted to wait until he was a better filmmaker before making this movie. This movie is therefore better than “Avatar” because the story is better. One person might make the argument that Nolan stole from “The Matrix” and “Ocean’s Eleven” just as “Avatar” stole from “Dances with Wolves”. The central story however in “Inception” is Dom overcoming his inner demons and trying to get home. We did not see this in either “The Matrix” or “Ocean’s Eleven”. In my view, you can borrow from another work of art but you must have an original central feature of the story. In the case of “Inception”, Nolan had the central conflict different from that of “The Matrix”. Also, “The Matrix” belongs in the comic book genre while “Inception” has more realistic action and “Ocean’s Eleven” has more comedy. In my view, “Inception” is a combination of “The Matrix”, “The Prestige” and the heist genre. “Inception” resembles “The Prestige” not just in direction but also in the complexity of the story. You have to be watching and paying attention to both films. As complex as the story is in “Inception”, I like that because it means you have to watch it again. I have come to like it more after multiple viewings (that is what happened with me and “Mission: Impossible”). Even after all the times I have seen "Inception", there are parts of the story that I still strive to understand. I love the falling van in the film because it is an effective and powerful countdown for our heroes. As with any heist film, there are setbacks and unforeseen problems that arise. In this movie, they only occour during the job and this forces the characters to improvise. Suspense is well created with such problems as Saito being shot, the crew discovering that Fischer has been trained against extraction, they must not die during the heist and missing a kick. Another good story conflict is the one between Fischer and his father. Even though he is tricked into breaking up his father’s empire, it is actually the best thing for Fischer personally. Being your own man is not a bad lesson. Usually in pulling off a heist, the victim is hurt but in this movie, Fischer is made into a better man and his relationship with his father is mended. I liked the ending of the film because as a result, “Inception” will stick in the audience’s minds. Is it still a dream at the end? My opinion is that the spinning top was wobbling just before the cut and so no, Dom is in reality. Other people will oppose me such as my brother and that is what makes the ending very successful.

Leonardo DiCaprio does it again. He chooses his movies so well. After his monumental success with “Titanic” and his subsequent failure with “The Beach”, I thought his career would be over. His success over the past decade is proof of his intelligence and professionalism. He doesn’t let his past work define him but instead he keeps moving forward to new projects. I can’t wait until he wins an Oscar because he is overdue. The character of Dom Cobb is well portrayed as a man with many unresolved problems emotionally. His broken family problems are relatable. I liked Ellen Page in “X-Men: The Last Stand” and she does such a good job in this film. I believe her performance as she helps Dom overcome his emotional turmoil. I still remember Joseph Gordon-Levitt from “Angels in the Outfield”. I like his work in “Inception” and his fighting in the hotel hallway was phenomenal. This role put his career into overdrive. I was introduced to Tom Hardy by way of "Inception" and I loved seeing Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy (both were in Batman Begins) & Pete Postlethwaite in the movie. This was one of Postlethwaite's last roles before he died and so the final scene between him & Murphy feels like a way for us to say goodbye to Postlethwaite. It wouldn’t be a Christopher Nolan film without Michael Caine either.

This film was destined immediately to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and it is one of my favorite sci-fi films. I wanted it to win for cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing & visual effects and it did. I was surprized that it won the cinematography Oscar over "The King's Speech" but it makes sense. The use of the camera was so good that it made us accept the special effects. When I first saw the movie, I was stumped as to how some scenes were done like the fight in the hotel hallway and the consequent weightlessness. It turns out that the fight in the hallway was practically done and that makes it even more impressive. I was a little disappointed that Nolan did not use IMAX cameras like he did on “The Dark Knight”. That would have made the film even better. Hans Zimmer did a wonderful job with the score and it has become a favorite of mine. It seems like Nolan and Zimmer have a goal when it comes to the musical score: they create a theme that is hard to sing or hum. I felt it or Alexander Desplat's work for "The King's Speech" should have won the Oscar instead of the score on "The Social Network". I enjoy how the credits end with the "kick music": "Non Je Ne Regrette Rien" by Edith Piaf (once portrayed on screen coincidentally by Marion Cotillard). This furthers the idea that the film is a dream within a dream. I find it wonderful how a movie can take an old song and give it a new subtext that was nothing like what the musician originally had in mind. I now have that song on my iPhone as my morning alarm. I like how I saw the film near the place where the mountain fortress scenes were shot. Speaking of that, the film is a simile of my experience when I saw it for the first time and thus I was very effected by “Inception”. I was working as a religious youth councilor in Calgary and that job felt like an escape from my usual life so I was happy. We had time off on the weekend half way through my two-week employment and so I decided I would see this film in IMAX in the big city. I was escaping from my escape just like “Inception” is a dream within a dream. With all the "dream levels" I was experiencing in the IMAX theater, I became physically overloaded as mentioned. Upon exiting the theater, I felt I was waking up to the first “level”. The story and cast are the best parts of this film and I hope to see it never gets old. This movie tied for the most Oscars wins in 2010 and rightfully so.

4.5 Stars

When this picture was taken in 2002, it was meant to reference "The Matrix". Recently however, it looks right out of "Inception" (I am the one in the middle).