Inception

Christopher Nolan may be the most brilliant, unconventional mainstream director working in Hollywood today, crafting intricate stories where narrative forms are stretched and twisted.Nowhere is this more obvious than "Inception," which turns into a multi-level Möbius strip -- worlds within worlds, dreams within dreams. Nolan delights in being able to conjure strange worlds that could never exist in real life, but he crafts a very heartfelt, powerful story for those visuals -- a story of love and loss, ambition and power, and a broken man haunted by guilt that constantly chases him through every dream.In the not-too-distant future (next Sunday A.D.), the military has created a technology that allows artificial shared dreaming. Within multi-leveled dreams, architects can create elaborate worlds, and special "extractors" can get information from a sleeping subject's brain. Oh, and there are several layers of dreaming, each with a different period of time passing.The movie opens with Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to extract some information from tycoon Saito (Ken Watanabe). It turns out that this was actually an elaborate audition by Saito, who wants to hire them for an "inception" -- to plant a new idea in someone's head. Cobb isn't interested until Saito offers to clear him of the murder of his wife, which would allow him to return to his young children.Their target: Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who has just inherited a massive energy conglomerate from his cold, callous father. Saito wants the company dissolved before it can become too powerful, so he wants the idea incepted into Robert's head.So Cobb gets together a gang of the best: clever forger Eames (Tom Hardy), dream-chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), and the new architect Ariadne (Ellen Page). But only Ariadne sees how troubled Cobb is, and that the memory of his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) is deliberately sabotaging every mission he undertakes. As the team weaves their elaborate web of deception and dreams around Robert, Cobb finds that his demons are threatening their mission.You have to give it to Christopher Nolan: he doesn't dumb down his movies for the masses. "Inception" is a hard movie to even summarize because it's constantly growing more complicated -- the team is spread out over different dream levels, with different time periods passing and different perils attacking them simultaneously. It's half heist caper and half sci-fi meta-thriller... if that even makes sense.And while Nolan sculpts a strange Escheresque dream-world of labyrinths and never-ending stairs, he also crafts some powerful subplots about love and loss. As the plot unwinds, he intertwines Cobb and Fischer's personal issues with the main story of inception. Suddenly the constant firefights, explosions and free-falling elevators/vans aren't the only reason we're invested -- the audience is truly left wanting to see both men work out their issues and find some measure of inner peace.It also has spectacularly good special effects, particularly Arthur's battle in the hotel -- he scampers across the walls and ceilings, grappling with projections as he floats through empty halls. Not to mention the scene where Ariadne turns a whole city upside-down... literally.Honestly, the biggest problem with the movie is that the dreams sometimes make too much sense. Why do Fischer's projections have to actually TRAVEL to attack the team instead of... I don't know, materializing inside the building?Nolan also populates "Inception" with a lot of actors that he's cast in other projects, especially "The Dark Knight Rises." In fact, I can't help but wonder if DiCaprio's role was originally offered to Christian Bale, because we've also got Cotillard, Hardy, Watanabe, Murphy, Gordon-Levitt and Michael Caine. There are actually only a couple major actors who haven't worked with Nolan elsewhere.But this is one of DiCaprio's best roles, even if he's not very convincing as a father -- his Cobb is riddled with guilt and numb sorrow, and it's only prodding from Ariadne that finally gets him to confront his issues. All the other actors give lovely performances as well -- Cotillard is particularly wrenching as a strange shallow shade of a madwoman, as is Murphy as the downtrodden son of a powerful man."Inception" is the kind of movie that we desperately need more of -- a wild Möbius strip of complex ideas, brilliant direction and powerful acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind film, and not one to be missed.

This is an excellent film. It's a daring film too. Like another film, The Usual Suspects, it starts in the present with a scene between an old man and a young one. The old man asks him what he wants and the young man struggles to recall what he wants from the old man. It leads to the start of the story in the past and an extraction job on the train to Kyoto, Saito's offer to Cobb, the assembly of the team, putting together their game plan for putting an idea into a financial rival's mind, the dream shared aboard the jet, onto the opening scene again when the young man why he's here then onto the final scene. The plot is superb. One man, Cobb, wants to find his way home to his family while another one, Saito, is willing to pay a fortune to change the outcome of events with a rival business firm through the inception of an idea into his rival's mind. The cast is also superb. It took more than Leonard DiCaprio to pull this story off. In this case there was some strong writing. Something closer to six or seven characters were needed for the development of the plot. Is it too complicated or just too intriguing? I really enjoy watching a good film again and again and have truly enjoyed Inception. Dreaming by itself was no basis for a story but to the credit of Inception it introduced dream-sharing by way of a new technology. In view of the developments over the past 60 years viewers will find it quite easy enough to suspend their disbelief. Cobb and his wife, Mal, put the learning to use by way of extracting ideas by people. Once they began building dreams within dreams extraction was easier but time moves at a different and slower pace at various levels of a dream. It can also become difficult to distinguish a dream from reality and they finally lose their way into the sub-conscious. After fifty years down there Cobb tries inception on Mal and plants an idea in her mind which leads to their return but Mal suspects that she's still dreaming and wants Cobb to return to reality. One night she tries to blackmail Cobb by informing the police that she suspects her husband will kill her. Dreams can be usually brought to an end when the dreamer runs out of time on the machine or is killed. After she kills herself Cobb leaves the country to avoid arrest but he's still deeply filled with regret and guilt about Mal who is constantly trying to keep him with her. It's interesting how one storyline is affecting the other one and the characterization which results from it.Ken Watanabe plays Mr. Saito. He's heard about extraction and rumours about conception. He's convinced that he will be financially ruined by his rival, Mr. Fischer. Now he's heard rumors about Cobb's skill but before he asks Cobb he wants to make sure that he's talking to the right mind. So he arranges an audition for Cobb's crew under tough conditions with himself as the target. Cobb extracts the information but he realizes that Saito has known all along about the job from start and asks why? Saito was never interested in the extraction but the level of Cobb's skill. While Cobb extracted the information, Saito wasn't impressed with the level of skill that Cobb showed. His opinion of Cobb quickly rises when he realizes that he's still dreaming. Cobb placed him in a dream inside a dream. In the following scene Saito makes an offer to Cobb of financial reward and a safe return to America if he can succeed in planting an idea in his rival's mind. Money is no problem with Saito. So Cobb finds a top-notch crew who will work for him and his partner, Arthur. DiCaprio clearly dominates the first crew but when Saito tells him to put together a better team he becomes part of the team. Michael Caine puts in a strong appareanance as Cobb's father-in-law who finds him another architect in dream-sharing, Ariadne played by Ellen Page. Then it's onto Africa for an interview with an old friend, Eames played by Tom Hardy, who's a skillful thief and forger and introduces Cobb to Yusuf, the Chemist played by Dileep Rao. Fischer, played by Cillian Murphy, puts in another good performance as Saito's rival. What's really interesting are all the contributions everybody makes towards the development of the story. It is a well written story and well performed one. You'll also appreciate the quick pace.While the dream starts on the jet. The levels of the dream can always be identified. The first level of the dream can always be identified by the rain in a city downtown. The primary development is the appearance of projections from Fischer's mind into dream who will defend him against any attempt at extraction. On this level Saito is shot and dying but on the lower levels it will take longer for him to die. Eames attempts to kill him and end the dream but the sedative taken demands their return to consciousness in a particular fashion. If they die they are lost in a sub-consciousness of the dreamer. So they must go onto the next level of the dream inside a van that Yusuf is driving. The second level of the dream is found in an expensive hotel where Cobb plays a figure on this level known as Mr. Charles and poses as one of the projections sent to guard Fischer. Mr. Charles gains Fischer's trust and convinces him that a corporate figure in his father's company is betraying him and the only way to learn the truth is entering a third level of the dream. The third level takes place in winter and the mountains where Fischer fights to learn the truth and the team plants an idea in him.In the meantime Saito dies during the assault. The scenes in the sub-conscicous take place in beautiful weather on the seaside. The final beach scene leads you to an earlier scene from the start of the film: an old man asks Cobb what he wants. The old man is Saito who was killed and has been lost for years. Cobb now remembers the audition for Saito, the inception and his confrontation with Mal. He urges Saito, now an old man filled with his regrets and guilt to come back with him and be young again. Well, the next scene tells you what happen he finds himself waking aboard the jet with Fischer, Saito and his crew. Saito places a call to set things in motion which will clear the way for Cobb's return home.I've seen this film on numerous occasions over the past few years. It just keeps getting better. It only proves the importance of good writing and acting to one another as well as editing and directing. Suspense simply is not a factor. Yet the story constantly grips you. You simply don't realize the length of the film by its quick pace of the story.