Moist Dreams

If you’ve been following my blog lately, you know how moist I’ve been for Inception. The teaser was easily the best trailer I’ve seen in years— rivaling that of Cloverfield in 2008—and it instantly whetted my appetite. Christopher Nolan follows up The Dark Knight inspiring a fervent amount of hype and hullabaloo with probably the most ambitious and improbable summer film in years. I say ambitious because the film is an original screenplay; I say improbable because Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures (who also produced The Dark Knight) actually ponied up the 160 million dollars to fund such an idea (the-numbers.com). If you haven’t done your research, Inception follows Dom Cobb, a thief who invades the dreams of his targets to extract dreams as he undertakes his greatest challenge of inception, planting an idea into the human mind. I'm going to tell you why I'm still moist from the experience.

Leonardo Dicaprio gives another fine performance as Cobb. He’s tasked with bringing a sense of heaviness as Cobb is simultaneously tormented by the death of his wife and his separation from his children. Shutter Island was a little more inspired admittedly, but I found his Cobb interesting. He's a man given little choices who must test his own abilities, stubbornly tabling his own faults in order to control his destiny. The cast of characters equally give delightful turns rounding out Cobb’s squad of idea stealers. Joseph Gordon-Levitt impresses again, playing Cobb’s right-hand man, holding his own against a mammoth actor like Leo. Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, and Tom Hardy are also bright spots rounding out the cast of fellow dream invaders. There is just enough color in the characters to enjoy seeing them, but not enough for you to need to know their life story. It’s Cobb’s movie and they play their role.



Tonally, the film definitely is sweeping. Each scene pushes into the next not giving a lot of time to catch your breath. This isn’t a knock by any means especially considering that it is an action film. And like a true action film, Nolan has a swift touch in pushing the film’s pace, a heady task considering how complex the world is. Yet here lies one of the film’s faults. The film disseminates exposition quite well considering how complex the film is; however, it may feel at times the characters are holding your hand and taking you aside to tell you why and how things happen in this world. I don’t knock the film too hard because this is an interesting and complex world that deserves some time to explain itself. Nolan covers some of it well with some conflict, and rarely does it hamper the film’s pace or detract from the experience.

Another common criticism is the film’s lack of emotional core. I can’t quite see this movie as being completely hollow and devoid of stakes. The film is grounded in Cobb’s attempt to get back to his children and the anguish he feels over his wife’s suicide. Nolan uses that throughline to explore human consciousness and our ability to root gnawing guilt and sadness deep down in our heads. The film deals with how our feelings and emotions pervade uncontrollably in the things we do and what we try to accomplish, like planting an idea in someone’s head. The story does a fine job of engaging and appealing intellectually to the viewer. If you can take the ride, it will give you some ideas to ponder on the ride home. Leaving the theatre, I heard scores of different conversation pontificating on the film’s ending, the logic of the universe, and generally how awesome the movie was. The last 40 minutes of the film involves some great intricate storytelling. I don’t want to give too much away (and truly I can’t because it’d take 20 minutes to tell you the logic of the world) but the third act is a masterful juggling act of storylines across several layers of consciousness.



I can say, visually, it definitely did not disappoint. Wally Pfister and Nolan have again succeeded in creating a beautiful film, mixing handheld action scenes with high-speed photography. The cinematography creates distinct looks for each setting that the film’s characters interact in. No matter where you are, whether, Paris, Mobassa, or Calgary, the film delineates its settings in an appropriate manner. Pfister stated in an interview with Variety that he gave each scene a distinctive color to ground the viewer in each setting. This strategy worked aesthetically, but also within the context of the narratives dreamy subjective landscape. Also, the action sequences are, forgive me for geeking out, fucking phenomenal. One set piece, teased in the trailer, in which Joey Gordon-Levitt shows off some acrobatics in a tumbles along a spinning hotel hallway in an effective and jaw-dropping action sequence. It was an impressive feat, and I can’t wait for the DVD explaining how they did it.

The Elixir: Inception is far from a perfect movie. In fact, bloggers have already descended like vultures to tear the film’s logic apart. Personally, I’ll wait to watch it again before I jump even harder on this movie’s nuts. Nonetheless, Inception was a welcome and an inspiring anomaly in today’s summer film market. Visually breathtaking, Inception engages your eyes as well as your brain in a grand scale. These are the types of movie’s remind me why I want to make movies. I can only hope that good word of mouth propels it forward and inspires similar endeavors.