Many movie-goers enjoy watching films to escape reality for a few hours. Some movies seem to cast a spell on the mind, and the audience barely has to think about the characters or plot of the movie. These simple movies have a simple purpose: to allow the audience to sit back and mindlessly follow the storyline.
Inception is not a simple movie. The movie requires each audience member to think throughout the entire movie. This is a movie that one unclear moment could affect the understanding of the entire movie; however, the movie will not disappointment.
The Premise of Inception
Inception is the movie's term to describe thoughts being planted into one's mind through dreams. An inceptor is a trained person who enters another's dreams to encourage an idea or thought to transform. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, the expert inceptor who leads a group of specialists to plant an idea within the mind of an emerging business tycoon. The team is hired, through coercion, by another businessman who wants to gain financially by the process.
The first part of the movie centers on Cobb choosing the team players for the inception game. This includes training a genius college student to design aspects of the dream, which is referred to the architecture. Ellen Page plays Ariadne, the college student who has the innate ability to construct dream environments with internal mazes and levels.
The second half of the movie involves the inception process. Each team member has a specific task and must rely on Cobb as the leader; however, Cobb's past experiences in inception begins to emerge as a danger to all involved.
Review of Inception
While the premise seems partial to the science fiction genre, the movie draws in the audience through the connection of dreaming. A common theme of the movie is if one is living in reality or in a state of dream. When dreaming many people are not aware that they are dreaming but instead believe that they are living in reality. At times people believe they awake from a dream only to find out that they are still dreaming.
DiCarprio's portrayal of a genius on the brink of an emotional breakdown is believable. The supporting cast only lead to his believability. The ensemble are true to their roles and none stand out above the other. Each draws the audience into their specific role in the inception experience.
The special effects only add to the acting and plot. Taking suggestions from the Matrix movies, Nolan produces effects that draws audiences into the dream state effectively. He also understands that external noises and situations attribute to the dreamers dreaming state. One funny example is that one inceptor forgets to use the restroom prior to integrating into the dream. This produces a major rainfall within the dream affecting everyone.
Keys to Understanding Inception
Inception is truly a movie that is best seen multiple times in order to understand it fully. However, some key elements may be beneficial to audience before viewing the movie.
- Roles of the players. Be attuned to learning each players' specific role in the inception.
- Motives of the players. Learn what the players have to gain by performing the inception.
- Levels of dreaming are really degrees of dreaming and limbo is the ultimate level. Each degree has its own time dimension. An example is 10 hours of awake time is equivalent to a week within the dream state. With each level the time expands until the dreamer is in limbo and could ultimately spend decades in that dream state.
- Tokens are important. Tokens are used to help an inceptor to determine if they are dreaming. Be aware of the significance of the tokens for each inceptor as they are keys to the movie.
Inception is actually a great movie for anyone who enjoys complicated movies or ones that require constant thinking. Even though the genre is science fiction, the overtones are common to everyone permitting a mutual involvement of the cast and audience. The movie has room for only pertinent information so every bit of dialogue and visual is essential to the movie, which mean that audience members should not leave for snacks or breaks during the movie.
Kerrie Troseth - Kerrie is a licensed school counselor who works exclusively with adolescents. As a school counselor she is trained in the areas of ...
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