Director-screenwriter: Christopher Nolan
Director of photography: Wally Pfister
Production designer: Guy Hendrix Dyas
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Jeffrey Kurland
Special effects supervisor: Chris Courbould
Visual effects supervisor: Paul Franklin
Editor: Lee Smith
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cottilard, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy. Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Berenger.
149 min. PG -13

The Bottom Line.

Love it or hate it (and I really loved it!) “Inception” hits one of those rare high points in screen sci-fi.  The idea is audacious, complex and morally challenging but, on the most fundamental  level, its stunning fantasy thriller that pulls us out of reality into a dream world and back again. It’s about thieves who steal ideas from people’s dreams, but they also leave things behind, things that reach out of the dream and into a “real” world to demand a profound moral  scrutiny. It’s an elaborate heist staged in the mind of a sleeping person, and we have never seen anything quite like it.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Main Review.

In same the way that “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Matrix” and “Avatar” expanded and illuminated the sci-fi genre, “Inception” mixes philosophy, technology, dreams and high drama into a dazzling, innovative blockbuster.  It’s over two hours long, but the speed and fascination of the story makes it feel brisk and involving as it takes us into a sci-fi headspace that has never been so boldly - or so effectively  - evoked on screen.

To offer a synopsis would be to betray the twists and surprises of the intricate story, and only a boor would do that. The film’s founding concept, however, is a different matter. It focuses on Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is some kind of corporate fixer. Instead of wire taps, hacked computers and stolen information, he and his colleagues have developed a new technology.

They are called “extractors” and they are able to enter the dreams of an individual who is in an induced sleep state. The extractors, who must also go into a sleep state, enter the consciousness of the sleeping person. Once there they can retrieve hidden memories and deeply buried secrets. They are also able to explore the emotional and psychological state of the sleeper.

Like physical burglars, they must look for valuable and precious things, in this case, memories, ideas and anxieties. They take that information back into the “real” world where they are able to confront the awakened subjects with the issues and choices that they cannot - or will not - consciously acknowledge. They are personal issues, memories, embedded fears - everything that is holding these people back or clouding their judgment.

That’s the positive, constructive aspect of the process, but it is open to abuse. Psychological espionage can lead to industrial espionage, and there are people with vast resources who want to dominate the field. The central plot strand follows Fischer (Cillian Murphy) the heir to a vast business empire. Fischer is estranged from his father, played by Pete Postlethwaite, but the old man is dying. Waiting in the wings is Saito (Ken Watanabe) a Japanese tycoon who has plans for the young Fischer after his father dies. Saito hires Cobb and his team to put Fischer in a dream state and to explore his memories, his plans and his anxieties about his father. 

Cillian Murphy

That’s the structural core of the story, but there are other stories weaving through the drama. The extractor, Cobb, yearns to be re-united with his two children, but there are obstacles. Cobb’s wife Mal (Marion Cotillard), was also an extractor, but she is no longer there. She grew suspicious of how the extraction process affects to the emotion and the psyche of a person who steals into other people’s dreams.

Then there is Ellen Page as Ariadne, who takes to the dream-world like a fish to water. She’s one of the most impressive young actresses currently working in American cinema and in this story she is like the group conscience, the voice of reason and restraint as the other extractors buckle under additional pressure, in a world that grows increasingly irrational.

Marion Cotillard  and Leo DiCaprio

When people are forced to move so rapidly - and so often - from reality into dream and back again, there’s a danger they lose track of the difference between truth and illusion. If you lose sight of reality, you could also lose your sense of self and that will certainly send your moral compass into a confusing whirl.
So, the personal narrative is dense. It requires the audience to pay close attention and it is full of fascinating ideas. Instead of a parade of clichés, like car-chases, explosions and shoot-outs, Nolan, the writer-director of “Inception”, challenges his audience to think and to reason, instead of just sitting passively, watching the action stunts flash by.

The intricacy of the plot and the shifting time phases are backed by some of the most extraordinary CGI images we have ever seen on screen. The most dazzling is when, in a dream, Ariadne walks down a bustling city street and using her mind, she bends it upwards and folds it down over her head, like a ceiling, so that the street on which she walks also becomes the roof above her, that is an exact replica or the street below.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page

It’s a breathtaking moment, matched only when a single man must round up a group of sleeping people and take them to some place of safety. The trick is that the whole scene takes place in a place where gravity has failed. This guy is floating in free fall, and must collect his floating colleagues under intense pressure, and prevent them from harm. It’s an action stunt that boggles the mind and that’s why, in terms of design and visual stunts, “Inception” sets a new bar for all other FX designers to beat.

The boldest move that writer-director Christopher Nolan makes in his screenplay is that for all the dazzling effects and concepts, the whole film hinges on the emotions of two men. It’s not the industrial secrets, the overthrow of power or the acquisition of wealth that drives this film. It’s about two deeply scarred, emotionally challenged men must finally take a crucial, final step towards the most important people in their lives.

Dircetor Chris Nolan

The industrialist Fischer, who has a vast business empire to run, but until he has resolved his harsh, ambivalent feelings for his father, he cannot move forward in his life.  Cobb is scarred by the loss of his wife, Mal, and he’s guilty about his separation from his two children. Both men are looking for forgiveness, but that involves a great leap of faith for both of them.

Their dilemma forms the poignant, intimate centre to this dazzling narrative edifice, and it is wreathed with metaphors and clues. Look at the names, for example. The character Ariadne (Ellen Page), derives from the Greek mythology. She was the woman who strung a thread through the labyrinth that allowed the hero Theseus to escape the maze. At the end of this film, when the extractors are trapped in a complex maze-like building, it is Ariadne that leads then through.

Fischer (Cillian Murphy) seems to link back to the old Arthurian legend of “The Fisher King”. It is about an old, dying king whose impotence is weakening his kingdom. It is his young, insecure son who must confront his father, take over his role as leader and restore stability to the kingdom. In the film the old tycoon, Fischer is dying and his estranged son, who sees his father as a tyrant, must finally make peace and heal the wound between them.

Then there’s the luminous, fragile presence of Cobb’s wife Mal, who parted from him because he could not follow her convictions. She went from lover to enemy, and she is a disruptive, taunting but profoundly persuasive presence in Cobb’s journey. She is played by French actress Marion Cotillard and in French the word “mal” means, evil or darkness, which adds another metaphorical touch. The more you look, the more you will see.

Marion Cotillard

You may leave the cinema after your first viewing, thinking that you understood what it was all about, but I suggest you take a second look at the film. Can you identify the genuine layer of “reality” on which these characters actually live? As the film ends, is Cobb in a real physical space, functioning as a physical, human entity, or has he succumbed to his grief and emotional longing for his children and has taken refuge in a dream state?

And what is the meaning of that spinning top that is a visual motif that runs through the film? It’s the last thing we see, in the film, but is it’s steady, spinning equilibrium a concrete sign of reality regained, or does it signify a cruel illusion? Working out the answer to those questions is almost as entertaining as the film itself.

Other Views

“Variety”, Justin Chang

If “Inception” is a metaphysical puzzle, it’s also a metaphorical one: It’s hard not to draw connections between Cobb’s dream-weaving and Nolan’s filmmaking -- an activity devoted to constructing a simulacrum of reality, intended to seduce us, mess with our heads and leave a lasting impression. Mission accomplished.

“Boxoffice Magazine”, Pete Hammond

In terms of sheer originality, ambition and achievement, “Inception” is the movie of the summer, the movie of the year and the movie of our dreams.

“New York Daily News”, Elizabeth Weitzman

When was the last time you had your mind blown by a movie? Because when Inception ends and the lights come up, you’ll be sitting in your seat, staring at the screen, wondering what the hell just happened.

“The New York Times”, A.O. Scott

Though there is a lot to see in “Inception”, there is nothing that counts as genuine vision. Mr. Nolan’s idea of the mind is too literal, too logical, too rule-bound to allow the full measure of madness -- the risk of real confusion, of delirium, of ineffable ambiguity -- that this subject requires.