Summer had settled into its movie doldrums of sequels, remakes and rehashed ideas, while the intelligent speculative fiction thriller “Inception” has blown in a fresh breeze of innovation.
The clever, original thriller about industrial espionage through invading dreams, “Inception,” is a revelation, and a promise fulfilled.
Christopher Nolan, director of “The Dark Knight” and “Memento,” offers a film that is not the technical marvel like the 3D “Avatar” and is not in fact a 3D movie at all, but is a fresh, imaginative film, something increasingly rare from Hollywood.
Both brainy and entertaining, “Inception” is speculative fiction, “what-if” science fiction, in the manner of author Philip K. Dick, who penned such mind-twisters as the basis for cult-favorite “Blade Runner.” Nolan co-wrote this screenplay but it shares Dick’s tendency to explore philosophical and humanly emotional issues within a science fiction setting.
In “Inception,” Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are experts in a particular form of corporate espionage. The team uses a machine that allows them to enter the dreams of targeted businessmen in order to steal corporate secrets, a process called extraction. But a Japanese executive (Ken Watanabe) wants Cobb to carry out a far more difficult task, to implant an idea, a process called inception, in the mind of a wealthy young executive (Cillian Murphy) poised to inherit his father’s empire. He offers a payment Cobb cannot refuse.
Despite his unparalleled professional skill, Cobb is haunted by memories of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard). Cobb needs rebuild his team for the job, so seeks out his father-in-law (Michael Caine), a professor of architecture in Paris. He recommends a gifted student named Adriane, played masterfully by Ellen Page, to build the needed dream worlds. Adding a master of disguise (Tom Hardy) and a mixer of concoctions (Dileep Rao) fills out the team.
It lays the basis for an entertaining spy thriller but this many-layered film goes deeper yet, to visit human longing, regret, self-delusion and more, all unfolding seamlessly within a heart-pounding thriller and breath-taking visual landscape. Too much plot detail will spoil the fun but “Inception” is packed with cleverness.
The song that signals the dream-thieves that their time is almost up is one by Edith Piaf, the legendary French songstress Cotillard portrayed in “La Vie En Rose.”
Much of the enjoyment of the film is in its sheer visual inventiveness. The architects create alternate-reality worlds, where trains may appear out of nowhere on city streets or a whole cityscape may fold up into itself.
The thriller creates a dream within a dream level of reality that can challenge audiences to keep up, but Nolan keeps the audience grounded by using very different looks for each reality, a wintery fortress for one, the interior of a posh hotel for another and so forth.
The acting by this fine cast adds the human dimension needed to make the characters fully real and the dramatic story involving.
Director/writer Nolan has fulfilled the promise from years ago, when his no-budget non-linear film “The Following” screened at the St. Louis International Film Festival. The wildly successful Batman movie “The Dark Knight” established Nolan as a director for huge numbers of movie fans and gave him the industry clout to make “Inception,” a film he had dreamed of making for years, a reality.
There are layers upon layers of details and meanings, making this a film worth multiple viewings. “Inception” is one of the best films so far this year.
