"Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious," wrote Sigmund Freud in 1899's The Interpretation of Dreams. Then what would the Father of Psychoanalysis think of Christopher Nolan's film Inception, which features high-stakes corporate espionage in the dreaming mind?
With groundbreaking visual effects and a whip-smart script which plays with viewers' notions of dreams and reality, Inception is that rare summer film with both brains and heart.
Christopher Nolan Directs Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception
Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a freelance corporate spy who uses dreams to steal ideas and secrets from his clients' competitors. Running from the law for a crime he may or may not have committed, Cobb is offered one last job by a ruthless CEO (Ken Watanabe): figure out a way to implant an idea into the brain of a competitor (Cillian Murphy) in order to prevent a possible energy monopoly.
With a team consisting of his lieutenant Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a student architect (Ellen Page), a chemist (Dileep Rao) and a forger (Tom Hardy), Cobb creates dreams within dreams to confuse and con their prey. But will a mysterious figure from his own unconscious mind (Marion Cotillard) sabotage their efforts?
Inception is what happens when a highly creative mind gets to play with an almost unlimited budget. Unlike George Lucas (whose storytelling sense dissipated when his budgets matched his imagination), Nolan has written a compelling story with richly detailed characters. Despite much of the plot taking place in dreams, this world has definite rules and Nolan knows how to work the limitations to his advantage. All that homework pays off later on, where the action's occurring in 3 separate places, at 3 separate paces. It's a tribute to Nolan's script and direction that the audience can follow along.
Like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio needs the right director for him to deliver great performances. Ridley Scott failed to unleash DiCaprio's potential in Body of Lies (Mark Strong stole that film in any case) but Nolan knows what DiCaprio needs to get the job done. Ellen Page's role seems underwritten but she's really the audience's avatar; through her, we learn the rules of navigating dreams.
How best to describe the visual effects? Ah got it: remember the first time you saw Star Wars: A New Hope or The Matrix? Inception will give you that same thrill. A fight between two men while the room spins crazily around them is worth the price of admission alone.
Inception Is One of the Best Films of 2010
Taken as part of Nolan's filmography, Inception lands somewhere between the brilliant Memento and The Dark Knight. It's not as much of a mindfreak as Memento, but Nolan can't resist pulling your chain a few times. It actually has a lot in common with The Matrix in its meditations on fantasy versus reality, and its groundbreaking visual effects (although, thankfully, no Keanu Reeves).
But while The Matrix eventually collapsed under the weight of its own importance, Inception is the first movie in 11 years to expand on the ground the Wachowskis broke, and it does so beautifully. Both eye-popping and intellectually satisfying, Inception takes a simple premise taken to a scale unheard of in Hollywood film, and that's why it gets a 5/5.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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