Feature Film Review

Rating:

Shocked awake from a dream, the sleeper is compelled to put pen to paper and write it all down, from the age-old mystery of its meaning to the arcane minutiae of is puzzling constructs, one must document everything in a hurry before the harsh reality dulls the senses. For no matter how vivid its imagery or how important its message, the colors of the unconscious mind quickly fade, and the elemental magic of the dream is all but lost.

Stunned and shuffling from a darkened cinema, Christopher Nolan’s newest number has already begun to slip away from you. Checking the alarm clock, two and a half hours of time have gone missing since the jaded crowd of spectators filed into the theatre, silenced their cell phones, and began to question what Nolan and company could possible do to make them forget his last film, a little movie titled, The Dark Knight.

Here was Inception (whatever that meant), a genre-bending summer movie with understandable built-in buzz spreading among audiences everywhere and from the first five untitled minutes, viewers were in over their heads.

Much like any enduring dream experience, there was a skeletal plot of sorts. Leo DiCaprio portrays Cobb, a rogue scientist who commands a special-ops dream team – hypnotists for hire who extract subconscious secrets from the minds of sleeping targets. Following a failed mission, Cobb is offered a consolation prize: a project that, if completed, will reunite him with his estranged children. The project involves “inception” – the risky process of altering the waking life of his employer’s corporate rival through the active manipulation of his dreams. Though his colleagues insist upon its failure, Cobb may already have some previous experience in these unchartered waters.

He reinforces his ranks with a few new members and boards a flight headed for home with his subject in the crosshairs. All that is left is a complicated, multi-dimensional mind adventure that all but defies explanation.

Christopher Nolan's Inception has audiences spinning out of
control.

Picking up where his early film Memento left off, Nolan uses a non-linear approach to telling his story. Add to that the accelerating action of three levels of unreality moving simultaneously, a cadre of unusual characters and set pieces, and you have a thinking man’s blockbuster - A brawny roller coaster with brains to boot.

The film may be action-packed and visually explosive, but it is the texture and tone of the whole that ultimately succeeds in capturing the viewer’s imagination. Mirrored walkways and folding cityscapes are quite impressive, but even more impressive are the quaking railroad ties, the shoe slipping from the foot of the high-rise suicide jumper, or the reoccurring spinning top – the “totem” that differentiates the dream world from reality.

DiCaprio and the supporting cast keep the uncanny material rooted in just enough realism to make it matter. Beautifully photographed, cleverly written, and driven by a foreboding Hans Zimmer score, the film may be far-fetched and confusing, but is emotionally invested and hauntingly familiar – exactly the stuff that dreams are made of.

Walt is Senior Writer for www.featurefilmreview.com. Email comments to walter (at) featurefilmreview (dot) com.