The Kidd Vs. Inception
CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD
I realize that my thoughts on INCEPTION are a little later than expected, but the way I see… anything worth doing is worth doing right. After a few days of really letting the film seep into my subconscious, after 2 separate viewings to completely wrap my head around everything that was happening in the film, particularly the details, and, after my last attempt to write this review, which resulted in me falling asleep at my desk with my head back and my feet up, dreaming about writing a review of INCEPTION only to awaken to a blank computer screen, The Kidd finally knows what he wants to say – this film is awesome. This film is great. This film is exceptional, phenomenal, amazing, etc. You come up with an adjective along those lines, and INCEPTION is it, because Christopher Nolan has done it again, delivering the best damn movie of the summer.
As the disappointing months and movies of the summer season has passed us by, INCEPTION has been the one title that really has stood out to those of us who love movies. For a movie that no one knew anything about, other than it being about dreams, the expectations were extremely high, due to the fact that Christopher Nolan was directing and Leonardo DiCaprio was starring. But, for all the hype, that wasn’t a surefire thing. I felt burnt early in the year by SHUTTER ISLAND, simply because the hype got the best of me, and I didn’t think they delivered. That meant there was no guarantee that INCEPTION was going to be great, or even good. For all we knew, going against everything we hoped for, INCEPTION could have been just another mediocre film this year.
But it isn’t. It’s pretty fuckin’ far from that, as INCEPTION really does well what movies are supposed to do well, which is make anything possible. Because you’re dealing with dreams, you can really do anything. If you want to drive a train down the middle of the street during rush hour traffic, it can be done. Changing the physics of the street, so that it can be turned upside-down and laid on top of itself? No problem. Anti-gravity, endless imagination… it’s all within the realm of possibility for this world heavily invested in dreams.
INCEPTION is laid out as the story of a man, Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), who serves as an extractor. He is able to penetrate your mind through your dreams, and steal ideas from your subconscious. When one particular job fails, he is offered another gig from his previous target Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe) to swing the other way, and perform an inception, which would be planting an idea in someone’s subconscious, and then watching it blossom into a decision they ultimately choose to make. However, the difficulty of this, as explained by Cobb’s right-hand man Arthur (the flourishing Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is that the mark can always trace the origin of an idea, because true inspiration is impossible to fake. For example, if I told you about elephants, what’s the first thing you’d think of? Elephants… not because you thought of it, but because I told you. Therefore, Cobb must assemble a team to go several layers of dreams deep into their new potential victim, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), who Saito wants to break up his father’s energy empire once his dad is dead, in order to prevent a superpower from controlling the entire industry.
And, if you thought that was complicated, you ain’t seen nothing yet. INCEPTION is a highly complex, multi-layered film. There is a lot happening at any given time, which has its roots in the lot that’s been happening throughout its entirety. As a result, there is a great deal of material to follow, and tons of details and ideas being thrown at you. Basically, INCEPTION is a whole lotta movie. There are all sorts of explanations about the real world and the dream world, shared dreaming, projections, and more, and your mind will have to constantly be moving quickly to absorb all of this information. But you can’t fault INCEPTION for dreaming big (literally and figuratively) and respecting your intelligence enough to not have to dumb down what it’s about, taking you on an action-packed thrill ride while, at the same time, forcing you to really think.
Leonardo DiCaprio gets top billing here as Cobb, and it’s for good reason, as his character is the most complex of the entire group. Everyone else involved is doing it for the money, but inception is a means to a far greater end for Cobb. He’s seeking redemption and a relief from years and years of crippling guilt. He wants to complete his quest to go home, to see his kids’ faces once again. Cobb’s past is one giant puzzle that Nolan masterfully navigates, producing a slow burn that reveals a tiny piece along the way, each time they go back to it. As a result, we get a terrific DiCaprio performance brimming with emotion. Cobb is a complicated man, because he’s managed to internalize his struggles which revolve around his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), whose projection continues to infiltrate any dream that Cobb is a part of. But, in doing so, he’s buried himself within his work, focusing on the mission, and accomplishing its goals. This is a man torn, and DiCaprio realizes the civil war existing in his head, between reality and dreams, beautifully.
Even though DiCaprio has the most to gain and/or lose, he wouldn’t be able to pull off inception without his crew, and that’s where the movie really shines. Once again, Christopher Nolan has assembled a tremendous ensemble to bring each character to life flawlessly. Each is just as important as the rest, and each gets their own moment in the spotlight to carry out their specific part of inception. They are all equal parts of the pie, and that is what makes INCEPTION so great. It doesn’t rely on one actor to carry the entire film. The movie is only as good as its weakest link, and even that person turns out to be pretty damn solid.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues his rise from child actor into an adult force. As Cobb’s partner-in-crime, he has a much more subtle role to play story-wise, with his prime responsibility being to teach the new architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), how to create worlds within dreams. But when it comes to the film’s action sequences, it falls heavily on Gordon-Leavitt, and… man, does he make it work? His anti-gravity fight in a hotel may go down as one of the most visually stunning action scenes I’ve ever witnessed. It’s here that you’ll see Gordon-Levitt battling aggressive-minded projections up the walls, across the ceiling, where up is down, down is up, and sideways can be any direction. In addition, the intensity of the scene is so great as Nolan builds to its climax, that, by the time it’s over, your first reaction is to let go of one deep exhale.
The true superstar to come out of INCEPTION though is Tom Hardy as the team’s forger Eames. Hardy’s quick-witted yet nonchalant cockiness creates a character that knows how great he is at what he does, isn’t afraid to let you know how great he is at what he does, and then goes out and proves how great he is at what he does. Eames’ participation in the concept of inception is extremely hands-on, helping to create the master plan to carry it out, and his interactions with Arthur, jabbing back and forth, create some of the film’s lighter moments. Hardy is an absolute pleasure to watch every second he’s on the screen, partly due to such an entertaining character, but also partly due to his great acting.
Marion Cotillard has a difficult role to play, as a far more passive insertion into the film. She may pop up in the dreams from time to time, but her real impact rests in the backstory of Cobb. With Cobb’s guilt at the center of it all, this is the most heartbreaking aspect of the film. Without ruining the revelations that make up their relationship, it is Cobb and Mal, who drive home the importance of completing the goal of inception, but, far beyond that, who add enormous weight to the balance that needs to exist between the real world and the dream world. Cotillard is able to draw sympathy from you in learning Mal’s tale, which is a tough thing to do when you take into account her constant sabotage of Cobb, and it’s no small feat for her to be so effective in a role that could easily be very unlikable on the road to ultimate tragedy.
The one performance I wasn’t crazy about upon my first watch of INCEPTION was Ellen Page’s. As Ariadne, she seems to thrust herself into situations forcefully, where she isn’t required to be, and, from that, she also starts to get annoying at times. However, upon seeing INCEPTION for a second time, I was able to come to the realization that Adriadne exists solely for the benefit of the audience. She isn’t a well-written character at all, and is absolutely the weakest link in the chain of INCEPTION. However, her role is to be the surrogate of the viewer. She is there for exposition purposes. She asks the questions you’re thinking at the very time you’re thinking them. She clarifies what’s going on, so that it’s easier for you to follow what is happening and why, if you’re paying attention. She allows for explanations throughout the whole film, without INCEPTION having to get sidetracked into a big tangent required to lay everything out on the table for you. She is your on-the-fly knowledge, and that comes through a bit more clearly the more you watch the film. Was there a better way this could have been done, considering the complexity of the story? I don’t really know. Her character is wasted a bit in having to use her like that, but at least it’s an effective waste that serves a purpose for the greater good.
The rest of the supporting cast from top to bottom is superb. Murphy, Watanabe, Tom Berenger (as Fischer’s godfather), Dileep Rao (as Yusef, the crew’s chemist, who helps bring about the shared dreaming), Michael Caine, and even a small role by Pete Postlethwaite all bring the goods, and are perfect in their particular roles. There isn’t a single performance that leads you to think that anyone else could have done better, and it all speaks to the overall greatness of INCEPTION.
There’s also something to be said for the score of INCEPTION, which is a credit to composer Hans Zimmer. The music has a very DARK KNIGHT feel to it, except it plays a bit better here. The intense bass resonates over the entire film, giving it a very epic tone, and it helps in making INCEPTION have a sense of unpredictability. With the aid of the score, INCEPTION always feels as if it is building towards something, and it is, drawing you further and further into each heart-pounding moment.
For as great as Christopher Nolan has been previously, from MEMENTO to BATMAN BEGINS to THE PRESTIGE to THE DARK KNGHT, INCEPTION is Nolan’s masterpiece. Being being the camera and having crafted the script, this is a work that could easily have gone off the rails, losing the audience along the way in a state of confusion. But Nolan is able to give us a movie that looks absolutely incredible, with his beautiful creation of the dream world, that also delivers an excellent story that will leave you breathless until the very last moment. For such a complicated script to come together into this final result is a testament to Christopher Nolan and how quickly he’s risen up the ranks as a director whose films are now must-see movies. He is the man responsible for INCEPTION, and he deserves all the credit in the world for making this awesome film.
INCEPTION more than lives up to the hype and expectations. It surpasses them with ease. Drama, action, comedy… you name it, INCEPTION has it. This film will grab your curiosity right from the start and never lets go for a moment. There are no lulls, no down moments in the film, and, even with a running time of 2 hours and 28 minutes, INCEPTION never feels long… or if it did, it never let me notice, since it was unrelenting. This is also a thinking man’s (woman’s) movie, so be sure to bring your concentration and focus into the theatre, because you’re going to need it. If your mind starts to wander, it’s easy to get lost in the story, trying to figure out if what’s happening is a dream or a dream within a dream or a dream within a dream within a dream or… well, you get the point. However, even if you have a hard time following that component of INCEPTION, the rest should more than make up for it, as there isn’t much not to like from what Nolan puts on the screen for you. Is a second viewing necessary? I don’t think so. Does it help? Sure. Knowing what to expect and having a basic outline of the plot, it’ll allow you to focus on the finer details of the film, giving you a further appreciation for what you’re watching, and enabling you to fully grasp the story as a whole. But then again, you might not need to see INCEPTION a 2nd time, because there was something you missed initially. You may just want to see it again, because it’s that great.
Great Movie. Enjoyed it.
Where did you get your pictures of the film from? Especially since they’re high res.