Inception (***1/4)

If Batman Begins and The Dark Knight hadn’t done it, this movie cements Christopher Nolan’s reputation as a creator of brainy blockbusters. With its nine-figure budget, it’s like a steroid-enhanced version of his breakthrough, Memento (budget: $5,000,000). Inception features Nolan’s signatures—a tricky plot intertwined with a heavy psychological component. There are shifts back and forth in time. His use of editing remains breathtaking, and yet the orgy of special effects threatens to overwhelm the human element.

Inception’s plot is literally the stuff of dreams. The high concept is that it’s possible to enter those of other people, and even to shape them. Hence Ellen Page’s role as a dream “architect.” She’s hired by Cobb, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, and he’s been hired by a Japanese businessman (Ken Watanabe). There’s a market for this dreamy stuff. Usually movies like this start out with the simple and build to the complex. For example, The Matrix (a movie of similar appeal, albeit one dissimilar in story) begins with an office worker who knows nothing about the complex virtual world he inhabits. Nolan thrusts you right into his world with barely an explanation. Here he explores concepts (or inventions) like shared dreams, dreams within dreams, and why you should never include real places in constructing dreams. And this is just in the first 15 minutes or so.

Until about then, I had the impression I was watching a sequel to a movie I hadn’t seen. After that, I grasped the basic idea of the story, but one could easily get lost in all the explanatory chatter tossed off by (mostly) Cobb, frequently while he is being chased. Seems that if you stay too long in someone else’s dream, psychological defense mechanisms kick in.

The scenes with Marion Cotillard, as Cobb’s late wife, help explain his motivation, and why he can’t see his children, but she’s more of a plot device than a character. (None of Nolan’s films, possibly excepting The Prestige, have included female characters of any complexity.) Like Memento, this is extremely clever, but unlike Memento, I watched the central character as an action hero, not someone to identify with. Memento made real how our memory makes us who we are. Here, the dream scenes are impressive, even astounding at times, but they feel nothing like real dreams. Nolan aims to bombard the senses, and nearly bludgeons them. Perfect for the video-game generation, the story moves to fast for to you to think about it, although clearly Nolan has. Make no mistake. This is an accomplished film, and my reservations are sure not to matter to someone who just wants a thrill ride. But I still say, sometimes less is more.

IMDB link

viewed 7/29/2010 at Roxy and reviewed 7/31–8/1/10