Film Review: Inception

Inception's a movie that I'd keep forgetting about, only to be occasionally reminded when a new trailer or bit of news would be released. I'm a big fan of Chris Nolan (Memento ranks up there as one of my all-time favorites, and as a comic book fan, Dark Knight's obviously near and dear), so I'm not sure why it was always off my radar, but here we are - it's done, it's out, and I've seen it.

If you're not acquainted with the premise, Inception stars Leo DiCaprio as Dom Cobbs, a thief who specializes in the art of extraction (stealing information from a person's subconscious via constructed dream worlds in which the victim doesn't know they're dreaming and the thief is able to break through their mental defenses). When a job goes south, Dom's offered a way out (along with another incentive he's been after for quite a while): performing inception. Whereas extraction is all about attaining information, inception is about planting information - an idea that grows and spreads once the victim wakes up. Supposedly no one's been able to pull it off, but Dom takes the job anyway.

Along the way, he assembles a crack team: Arthur the Point Man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), in charge of researching the target and providing pre-mission intelligence, Earnes the Forger (Tom Hardy), a master thief in his own right who can pose as different people in the dream world to fool and manipulate the victim, Saito the Tourist (Ken Watanable), the employer who's bankrolling the operation, and Ariadne the Architect (Ellen Page), who lives up to her namesake by designing "levels" for the dream world to manifest as. They also pick up Yusuf the Chemist (Dileep Rao), who's there in more of a support role as the person supplying the compounds that allow shared dreaming to take place.

The job's fairly simple: they need to put Robert Fischer, Jr., (Cillian Murphy) under with these compounds, get deep into his subconscious and plant Saito's idea. Things get complicated when visions associated with Cobb's dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) start interfering with the mission, and improvisations begin shaking apart the plan.

So if you want to know if I liked the movie, I'll just go ahead and say it: I liked the movie. It was great, and I can easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good thinking man's thriller. Everyone delivers an at-least solid performance, and a few actors (Tom Hardy in particular) honestly surprised the hell out of me. In typical Chris Nolan fashion, the film's gorgeous to look at, and as with his previous collaborations with Nolan, Hans Zimmer provides excellent accents with a booming score.

If that's all you needed, there you go. Having said that, I'd like to go into a few specific points.

As I said earlier, Tom Hardy really shocked the crap out of me. Up until this point, I'd only really known him as Shinzon from that awful Star Trek: Nemesis flick and as the titular character in Bronson, which was suitably tense, but ultimately just kind of disjointed and unsatisfying. But here in Inception, he really steals the movie, whether it's with his buddy cop-like arguments with Arthur or his dynamite action choreography. It's not hard at all to see why he was cast as the lead in the upcoming Mad Max 4.

Equally impressive was Ellen Page, who's always bordered right on the edge of annoying for me. She played things down with Ariadne, though, and it's with that subtlety that she's able to succeed at being the window into the world of Inception (being the newbie to the group, most of the exposition is brought on by her asking questions).

As for Leo, there wasn't necessarily anything to complain about, but I can't help but feel like he's been turning in the same kinds of performances for some time. There's even a point in the movie where Dom splashes water onto his face that looks like it could've been right out of Shutter Island. DiCaprio's been picking these tortured, humorless leading-man parts for years, and it's starting to take it's toll. On the bright side, he delivered on some great action set-pieces - especially a chase scene almost reminiscent from the parkour scene from Casino Royale.

And speaking of the action choreography, I really have to hand it to Noaln - he's come a long way. The Bourne-like fight scenes from Batman Begins were all kinds of nauseating, but he improved a greet deal with Dark Knight's practical effect set pieces, and Inception just takes it up another notch. There's one scene in particular where Arthur has to navigate a hotel while the point of gravity keeps shifting, and it's handled masterfully. It effortlessly handles the feeling of dreamlike disorientation without it being confusing or uncomfortable for the viewer.

Finally, there's the script itself. As the first film Chris Nolan's written on his own since his debut with Following, I think he's shown us exactly what his strengths and weaknesses are. He's obviously adept with high concepts and constructing intense moments, but Inception definitely has moments where it lags, and I can't help but feel like Nolan's brother Jonathan would've been an asset in reigning it in and giving the movie a much tighter feel, as he did with Dark Knight, The Prestige, and Memento.

So that's Inception. I don't feel like I'll be ready to truly rate it until I've seen it a few more times (it's definitely a film that seems like it'll reward repeat viewings), but I had a great time with it last night, and if you're looking for a sci-fi/thriller epic, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything better this year.