Movie Review: Inception
Alright. I seldom write movie reviews, but I'm gonna make an exception for Inception.
I've heard so many rave reviews about Inception, and I have been advised to watch the movie ALONE because you really need to concentrate to catch all the mind-fuckery going on. Honestly? I seldom get mindfucked. Didn't get mindfucked while watching movies like The Matrix or Minority Report. With Inception, I'll have you know that I was mindfucked by the ending.
Inception is possibly one of Christopher Nolan's best movies (IMHO, topping The Dark Knight) simply because it combines my favourite movie genre -- heist drama (in the vein of The Italian Job and Ocean's Eleven) with a psychology twist to it. Gotta love all the pseudo-science going on in the script, especially with the concept of different levels of 'dreams'.
Leonardo DiCaprio, as usual, picked a really good script. I loved him in Catch Me If You Can and The Departed, and he does play the part of a con man very well. Ellen Page was flawless, and I love the whole con team. Joseph Gordon-Levitt -- OMG, how did he turn from that geeky kid in 3rd Rock From the Sun into that smouldering side-kick?
So, million dollar question: Was the ending a dream or the reality?
Personally? I think it's the reality because everything seems to suggest that it was the reality -- the eventual realisation between Saito & Cobb that they were there to remind each other of a promise and a dream suggests that they knew that they have been living in a dream. Then, it was implied that Saito and Cobb shot each other to escape from limbo. The whole movie repeatedly enforces the concept that it's not healthy to stay in a dream forever (as evidenced by Cobb's guilt for planting it as an idea in Mal's sub-conscious), and for Cobb to suddenly embrace a 'dream' as his reality seems to flow against the driving force of the whole movie.
However, does it really matter? Does Christopher Nolan really want us to argue if the ending is a dream or the reality?
In earlier bits of the movie, Cobb was overly obsessed over the dream vs. reality problem. In the early minutes of the movie, Cobb was shown sitting in his hotel room, spinning the top and aiming a gun at his head -- the moment the top fails to stop spinning, he was ready to blast his brains out to 'wake up'. The level of paranoia and obsession with getting stuck in dream-limbo consumed him, perhaps as a projection of his guilt for messing Mal's mind up.
However, in the closing minutes of the movie, Cobb spun the metal top and he didn't look back to see if it topples over. Instead, he ran straight for the children. Maybe, just maybe, this is an indication that Cobb has truly forgiven himself for being the catalyst to Mal's eventual suicide, and he was no longer obsessed over differentiating reality from dreams.
Take away the spinning top bit of the ending, you would have accepted the ending as 'reality' as opposed to 'dream'. However, that was the beauty of the ending -- it leaves you wondering about how much of the entire heist was 'real'. Did the heist ever happen in 'reality'? Was the whole mission and heist dreamt up by Cobb? What if the whole movie was just a dream within a dream within a dream with a dream to the infinity?
Overall, Christopher Nolan drew heavily from the concept of subconscious thoughts and repressed feelings. A lot of psychotherapists would use concepts as such breaking free from mazes and unlocking a 'secret safe' deep within your thoughts to unmask long-forgotten catalysts for current behaviour and emotional problems. Personally, I feel that a lot of it is unscientific, but hey, there are so-called scientists who specialise in stuff like this. I think it's interesting to explore the human mind, although none of them could be tested empirically. How could you trial something like human behaviour and get exactly the same results each time? You can't put human behaviour into mathematical equations.
Again, interesting food for thought. Very enjoyable 2 1/2 hours.
For those who are confused over the whole movie, here's a simple diagram to help consolidate the story. :)
Source: Screen Rant