Inception Review!!!!
If there's one thing about this movie, it's that it merits plenty of discussion so let's discuss but only if you've seen it. SPOILER ALERT. SERIOUSLY.
I don't think there's been a movie as hyped and anticipated as Inception since quite a while ago. And for the most part, Chris Nolan is a director that people want to succeed because the types of films he makes don't come around that often. It's not that common for a guy who makes films like Insomnia, Memento and The Presitge to get a blank check $180 million budget to do whatever he wants with. And when that happens, people want it to succeed so he can keep making these movies and maybe we won't have to suffer another year of CGI porn blockbusters.
The funny thing is, given that this is Christopher Nolan and the subject matter of the film, people were expecting it to be like the most confusing movie ever and surprisingly, it really wasn't. I suppose if you're completely unfamiliar with the topic, there's a possibility of confusion (which is what I suspect happened with certain negative reviewers who claimed it was too confusing). But I saw this twice-- once with my friend. The second time I went with my 13 year-old brother and my dad. All of them saw the same coherent film that I did. There was really no confusion until the final shot and in that case, it's all up to interpretation anyways.
Since no doubt, the ending is the most controversial part of the film, I'll start there. Personally, I swore beforehand that if they used the whole 'it was all a dream' trick, I would absolutely hate it but the camera cuts away from that spinning top just in time for me to accept that ending. You see the top wobble for a brief moment and the screen turns black. If it had lingered any longer, it would've seemed more like a cheap gimmick than a genuine 'food for thought' ending. The top could've toppled over a second after the screen went to black or it could've kept on going. If the ending was a definite 'it was a dream', then it would've seemed cheap. But really, it's kind of fitting for a movie about the intricacies of planting an idea into someone's mind that the ending does just that. In effect, Nolan, by briefing panning to the spinning top and leaving us with this question, does what Cobb did to his wife (inception!)-- makes us wonder if this world is in fact reality. Plant a seed of doubt that this world might not be real... let's hope there aren't any Inception related suicides though.
So is it a dream or not? On my second viewing, I definitely took note that earlier in the film, Cobb spins the totem and it drops twice so if the rule about the spinning top holds, then pre-Inception heist, it is in fact reality. If the final scenes are actually dreams, then it must be at the limbo where Cobb is presumably still stuck in trying to find Saito. I did think that after the whole 'limbo' business, things started to wrap up too quickly. All of a sudden, they're all waking up on the plane, Saito's making the phone call and Cobb is back home with the kids. However, on the second viewing, I paid very close attention to the final shot and the top wobbles significantly, much more than I remembered the first time. It's a clear difference from when we've seen it spinning in a dream where it literally spins on without any sign of wobbling, yet Cobb doesn't even stay to find out. He just rushes off to see his kids (who oddly are wearing the same clothes and haven't aged..). And I guess maybe he just doesn't care if it's real or not. Like Mal said, it doesn't matter what you know, what do you believe? If he believes he's with his children again, then why not? He's happy either way whether it's a dream or a reality.
The action scenes are visually spectacular yet they're extremely reality-based. There are no flying trees or pink mushrooms. The creativity comes from how the film manipulates real elements of the world. One of my favorites things in the movie was the use of the van in free fall to induce a state of zero gravity in the second level dream. I mean, that is seriously one of the smartest manifestations of the 'ticking time bomb' trope I've seen on film. Not only did it provide that amazing action sequence in the hotel but it employed some truly spectacular editing. The way each splash of water or twist along the van ride translated to some subsequent occurrence in the dream state is edited seamlessly. Ha, and when they got to the third level, and skiing around in the mountains, I thought they were on her majesty's secret service or something. LOL.
The cast, as you might have noticed, is full of crazy talented people and across the board, they give strong performances. That said, I don't think this movie will end up with any acting nominations come Oscar time. While the material is exceptionally thoughtful and brilliant, it's not necessarily an actor's piece. DiCaprio, in my opinion, didn't carry this movie the way he did Shutter Island. He was quite good but no one performance is the show stopper of the film. The supporting cast is uniformly good as well, with the standouts being Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy (as well as their entertaining banter). Tom Hardy is especially charismatic here and I hope, is going on to big things soon. These two also get the best action sequences; JGL vs. Projections in the zero-gravity hotel and Hardy vs. Projections in the snow-capped mountains. And it just feels like there's some interesting history between the two characters with some well-intentioned antagonism.
Ellen Page, I thought, was great but as the voice of reason character, it's not so much awards worthy as just doing exactly what she's supposed to. But I would've liked it if the girl got a few moments of kicking ass. She came along to monitor Cobbs but come on, she doesn't even shoot a gun until once at the very end. Also, I didn't get a lot out of her thing with Arthur as I expected. I thought her scenes with Cobbs and Mal, and his scenes with Eames were much more lively. Cotillard is really good in her smaller role but again, while she's effective, I don't think it will be enough for Oscar by the end of the year (although out of everyone, I think she may have the best chance). Ken Watanabe is just awesome in anything and even though he spends half the movie mortally injured, he's still pretty badass. Cillian Murphy was quite sympathetic as the target, a nice change from his stereotypical bad guy role. Michael Caine's role is brief but I guess he's just there to remind us again that this is a Chris Nolan movie.
The cast also has some surprisingly great chemistry together (again, especially between JGL and Tom Hardy) and I think, this is helped a lot by some of the lighter moments in the script. Yes, it's a very thoughtful and serious film but it's not without some wit and humor (which was so painfully missing in that blue alien movie). Even when they're all in peril, the script finds the right moment for a little lightness. Like when the van's rolling down the hill and Yusef has just successfully steered them clear, he looks back for some props and low and behold, everyone's dead asleep. These small moments really do a lot in developing likable, three dimensional characters. So basically all I'm saying is that this movie has a great shot as winning the SAG Best Ensemble but I don't see any individual Oscar nods.
There were a few things here and there that didn't make perfect sense, which of course, comes with the territory of sci-fi. Like okay, they can dream up like all these huge guns and weapons to carry around but they can't dream up a like a magic wand (it's your dream, why not)? I guess because Nolan tried very hard to ground the dreams in some reality, they don't get like magic wands in their dreams (even though technically, it's absolutely possible to dream up that stuff and no reason not to once the subject was told he's in a dream). I guess there's still a certain logic to the dreams in this film, even though really, your logical frontal lobe is lowered enough in activity during sleep that there's often no logic to dreams.
Also, I'm kinda curious as to what sedative they were using that could actually allow shared dreams (as opposed to like 5 people having separate dreams about a similar landscape) and shoot a person straight to REM, since sedatives tend to suppress REM sleep, which is where most dreaming occurs. I guess that's why they don't specify an actual chemical. That guy just took a random beaker and was like "hey guys, use this!" Another thing, Saito is really that powerful that he can literally just make a call and get Cobbs off his murder charge? But he still needs to go through all this to just to get that guy to break up his company..
Finally, gotta give some points to Hans Zimmer. Flawless as usual. Not necessarily for a memorable theme but more for how the music helps build the momentum. A+++ again. I think it's almost certain to get a Best Picture nod, along with a slew of techs as well as Original Screenplay and Director. I would love to see this movie make a billion dollars at the box office just to prove that audiences aren't stupid and can handle a blockbuster that isn't dumbed down for infants. And that sometimes, a great cinematic experience is more than a few objects popping out in 3D. Maybe then, studios will stop throwing money to any project that involves explosions.
Tell me your thoughts! Especially on that ending. I'm curious as to your interpretation.
Is this the year for movies about Leo and his 'guilt' about crazy dead wives or what?
Also I love how even though at the beginning, people are just in it for the job/money/getting back to kids and Saito seems super sketch and Fischer Jr. is just some random rich boy, by the end, THEY ALL BECOME FRIENDS AND HAVE CUTE MOMENTS. DUDE, SAITO WOULD STILL HONOR THE AGREEMENT AND THEY CAN BE YOUNG MEN AGAIN. OMG. AND ALL THE BFF-NESS BETWEEN THE GANG AND FISHCER. I love that when they wake up on the plane, it's like they're all BFFs 4EVA.
keep spinning or no?
ETA-- apparently the chemical is called Somnacin and is obviously not real.