Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010): USA/UK

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Viewed at Edwards Cinemas in Santa Maria, CA.

Inception

It feels like the jury has been out on whether Christopher Nolan was really one of the elite directors of our time. Sure he’s made a genre defining film in Memento, and arguably the best superhero film ever in The Dark Knight, but I can’t help feeling that there was an uncertainty about Nolan as to whether he could deliver again or was the remainder of his success to be tied to the Batman series with minor interesting films like The Prestige? His latest film, Inception, puts that argument to rest once and for all announcing with authority that Nolan is for real.

Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) heads a small team whose job is to steal information from an individual while inside their dream. Businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) hires Cobb for a different job. He wants him to plant an idea in the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the son of Saito’s terminally ill corporate rival, Maurice Fischer (Pete Postlethwaite), so that Robert will break up his father’s empire when he takes over. This is an unusual and nearly impossible request, but Cobb is willing to take the risks involved for the reward which is the chance to return home to his children. Cobb’s dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard) figures prominently both in and out of the dream world.

From here it gets more complicated and the viewer must pay attention as the rules of the dream worlds and logistics of their operation are carefully laid out over time. It is nearly impossible to tell more of the film’s plot without getting sucked into explaining some of these rules as explanation of one area will lead to questions about another. Just know that it works. Sure the nitpicker will be able to find a hole here or there, but Christopher Nolan’s brilliantly complex, philosophically inclined script does an excellent job of creating a logical world that only the most anal will want to question for the purpose of debunking it.

Nolan builds his film with a fascinating momentum as he simultaneously unravels the specifics of how this dream world, and dream within a dream world, works at just the right pace to give us time to process it while awing us with his visuals. We are often in the dark about what will happen next as Nolan is basically inventing our story as we go.

This kind of daringly original film is unusual to see and even more unusual to see it in a big budget special effects heavy film that works. Nolan uses some incredible effects and CGI, but it never gets in the way of, nor overwhelms the story. One scene in particular, Arthur’s gravity shifting fight scene in a hotel hallway, will have you beside yourself with glee and shows how a real director uses special effects in what is instantly one of cinema’s best fight scenes ever! Nolan understands what so many directors do not. That the special effects are not the story. They are there to serve and enhance the story which they do brilliantly here.

Bursting with originality, Nolan’s film still recalls several influences. Nolan’s concept of hours of dream time being equal to only seconds of real world time may be an idea inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1930 film Blood of a Poet whose entire fantasy/dream story is implied to take place in the few seconds it takes for a chimney to collapse.

The film also has a con job/heist feel to it not unlike 1973’s The Sting or Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven with the characters playing very specific roles to get the job done. Cillian Murphy is their mark with Ken Watanabe as the financial backer of the operation, Joseph Gordon Levitt is the planner, Tom Hardy is the forger, Dileep Rao is the chemist, Ellen Page is the architect, and Di Caprio is the man in charge of pulling it off. The performances all around are solid with no one overshadowing anyone else, although I give a slight nod to Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy who stood out a bit for me.

Nolan has definitely paid his dues and is not likely to see the kind of high handed snub many felt was given to The Dark Knight when awards season comes around, especially with ten nominees now, and should be taking home some hardware. The only negative I can see is that Nolan has raised the bar so high for himself that it will be difficult to match, but this auteur of our time is one who seems up to that challenge.

About this entry

You’re currently reading “Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010): USA/UK,” an entry on Student Film Reviews

Published:
08.04.10 / 4pm
Category:
Films