Review of Inception (2010) by Spencer H — 06 Oct 2014

I enjoy "The Dark Knight" Trilogy; they entertain me quite a bit but they don't stick in my mind like they do with most people, but I usually accredit that to my issues with trying to take a character like Batman too seriously. Now, the hardest thing to ignore in those movies is the scope and the technicality of it all. These movies would be disasters under the hands of most other directors, but under the watchful eye of Christopher Nolan, who is absolutely the best working director we have right now for action films, these movies that could be monstrosities end up in the favor of people all across the world. "Inception," is an example of a top-tier director getting to make his passion project the exact way he wants to make it, while he is 100% in his prime. The result is a masterpiece.

A story that spans several continents, runs for 150 minutes, takes place in 5 different realities and has 9 main cast members, what could go wrong? Thankfully nothing does. Many viewers might get lost in the labyrinth Nolan has created with "Inception" and that is mainly due to the complex world he has set up and tries to teach us the rules of in the first hour so we can spend the rest of the time burrowing down an exciting tunnel of dreams. There's no shame in having to watch "Inception" more than once; there is quite a bit to keep track of but with Nolan's script and some sharp work from his editing team, you are able to at least keep up with the overall story without understanding all of the fine details in between, which can be cleared up on later viewings.

It was good to see Leonardo DiCaprio take a break from relentlessly trying to win an Oscar with a slew of pretentious "serious actor" roles and just do something fun where he still gets to deliver a real performance. He comes to us as Dominic Cobb, a dream thief on the run from the US Government after being framed for the murder of his wife, trying to figure out how to get home to his children in the States. While not usually my favorite actor, DiCaprio plays a great leading man here and really carries the film as a whole with only one brief "DiCaprio Freak-out" about 95 minutes into the movie.

The supporting cast comes from a hauntingly beautiful Marion Cotillard, who plays the guilt-based projection of Cobb's deceased wife, Ellen Page, who is the newest member of the Dream Team, so she can ask all of the exposition questions we want answers to, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as Arthur, Dom's partner in crime. The cast also includes a fun performance from Tom Hardy, who based his candor and mannerisms off of Christopher Nolan himself, so look out for that, and Ken Watanabe, a fine actor who unfortunately does carry a thick accent which is fine but he introduces the main plotline to us in his accent while speaking very quickly as a helicopter blares above him; I can't help but imagine there was a better take they could have used to get his lines across to the audience.

"Inception" may not be for everyone; I often struggle with overly-long science fiction films but this one is so grounded in its own set of rules and reality that it is quite easy to believe and won't leave you groaning or sitting through elaborate space battles. What we have here is a caper about gentlemen thieves with a splash of sci-fi to keep things original and interesting.

Make sure to give this movie a chance, it could go down as the movie Nolan made whilst in his absolute prime, before he bit off more than he could chew. Passion projects can sometimes be amazing ("Almost Famous") but other times the purity is lost in the director's head and they focus so hard on what they love, the audience becomes alienated ("Super 8," "This is 40"); "Inception" is the former. A passion project done right: fulfills everything the director wanted it to while also being accessible to the audience who paid to see it. If there was ever a perfect movie in the last 5 years, this was it.