Title: Inception
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Director: Christopher Nolan
Writer: Christopher Nolan
Duration: 148 minutes
Released: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 12A
Christopher Nolan, the mind behind films such as Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Batman Begins and Batman The Dark Knight has always had an interesting approach to films and whilst his previous efforts have all been intelligent and well-devised, Inception is a cut above the rest in terms of elaborate and complex storytelling. You will need all your powers of concentration to get through this film with anything of an idea of what is going on. And even then you still might find it all just too confusing to bear. I’ve seen it twice now and I’m still not sure if it makes sense or not, to me at least.
Sure it’s an entertaining Matrix-esque action film, packed full of top-notch stars with a number of high-energy running gun battles and car chases as well as some excellent special effects that help Nolan to realise his alternative worlds of his protagonists’ dreams, but what exactly is it all meant to mean? Can the audience fully appreciate it? Can they fully understand it? It all happens at breakneck pace, and whilst the actors and Nolan himself spent months, if not years, working with the script and with the ideas and notions behind the storyline – the concept of inception and the dreamworld – the audience are not privy to the same information or knowledge. The audience are thrown into the mix without even a scant briefing beforehand and have only just over two hours to get to grips with it, by which point, on first viewing at least, the film has already passed them by. Sure this is great for the Box Office receipts, but it’s not very fair to the audience. Nevertheless as one of the main criticisms of films often seems to be that they are not inventive enough or not creative enough, then maybe Inception should be praised. Assuming that the general public mostly watch Hollywood blockbusters, rom-coms and horror films then this is likely to be one of the most arty and challenging films that they will have seen in recent years. Of course if you can’t keep up with the storyline then there is still plenty of exciting action scenes that will get your blood pumping.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Cobb. He infiltrates people’s dreams to find valuable corporate secrets. He puts in another good performance after his turn in Shutter Island. His supporting cast is also excellent. Tom Hardy (amazing in Bronson) is Eames – a ‘forger’ on Cobb’s team who has the ability to assume the identities of people within dreams in order to help manipulate targets. Ellen Page (fun and perky in Whip It) is Ariadne, an extremely intelligent and creative young student, who knows nothing of the concept of inception until she meets Cobb who employs her to be an ‘architect’ – someone who is able to create a dreamscape that, once again can be used as a method of manipulating targets. Finally there is Cobb’s go-to-man and sidekick Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (likable and vulnerable in 500 Days of Summer) who has some mind-bending skills of his own.
The pacing is good, it will certainly keep viewers on the edge of their seats, and the direction is excellent, especially considering how complex the film is, but the plot just seems needlessly complicated. In the world of Inception where there are four different levels of the dream state it all becomes rather confusing.
By the end you’ll be asking yourself is Cobb still dreaming? The problem is that because Nolan has concentrated on action and intrigue, more than on his characters, you may simply not care.
