Reel Reviews: Inception

While I’m sure most of you have heard the glowing reviews for this film floating around the web already, and have also(hopefully) seen it as well, I promised a review so here it is. I mean, I had a busy weekend, including seeing this for a second time which it both deserved and also required to catch some extra stuff. While I’m willing to admit that I am something of a Christopher Nolan fanboy, I am not in the percentage that can’t separate themselves from that to be honest and as such I hope that you can take my review for what it is: an honest review of a film.

Now, as it stands there are hot streaks, and then there’s Christopher Nolan’s current streak . How hot can that actually be? How about the sun covered in fried gold(Shaun of the Dead reference BTW) and I honestly can’t complain to much about his career; even if I have yet to see his supposed weakest film, the remake of the Norwegian film Insomnia, I do respect him from the time that I saw his start, Memento. As with from that time, and into his reboot of the Batman franchise, his casting choices are gold in this film, as are his writing and general direction of both the actors and the camera work. But as Nolan is the heart of this film in his creating and controlling of this film, I feel that its better to break down those parts then just sing his praise.

As such, let me hit that first point I mentioned: the casting. I will admit that as a hole I did already really like every actor in this film before I went in. DiCaprio has always shown incredible talent, including being in one of my favorite movies of all time The Departed and from his awesome, continued work with Martin Scorsese. Joseph Gordon-Levitt…well I think I’ve sung his praise a lot on this blog as is so I’ll just name the underrated film, which I did a Missed Movies article on, Brick, as well as his critically acclaimed role in 500 Days of Summer. Ellen Paige is a great young actress, most well-known for the film Juno, Tom Hardy is usually seen in high quality “indy” flicks such as Bronson, Dileep Rao from that little movie Avatar is great comic relief and Marion Cotillard is probably best known from her role in Public Enemies. The cast is rounded out by some great actors whom Nolan worked with in the Batman movies, such as the great Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe and a small, but important, part is played by the great Michael Caine.

The movie follows a team led by Cobb(DiCaprio) which also features Arthur(Gordon-Levitt) who is his stoic point man and trusted friend, Eames(Hardy) the conman/forger who is usually at odds with Arthur, Yusuf(Rao) the chemist who is there to help keep them in the dream, and Ariadne(Paige) who is the architect, the maker of the dream. They are hired by Saito(Watanabe) to plant an idea, to create “inception” in Maurice Fischer Jr.’s(Murphy) mind. This all works because the cast is so solid and have such good chemistry that even those that receive weak characterization still stand out to you. I mean that is a true fault to the film, that only really DiCaprio’s Cobb gets a lot of characterization, but it is helpfully negated by the actor’s portrayal as we see them put into clear roles on the team and interact well, such as when Eames continually messes with the straight laced Arthur. It just works due to the solid acting jobs and the just well defined enough characters.

The film breaks down to a solid story and psychological thriller that keeps you riveted. Nolan has said that he wanted to make a crime thriller and then this developed out of his love for the likes of the Matrix(actual film named) and this movie delivers a psychological impact on that same level and is only made the better by it coming out more well defined. The film is also well punctuated with gorgeous, jaw dropping scenes that just pull you in. There is one fight scene that I wish I could talk about here without ruining anything, but it essentially involves Arthur dealing with a situation that is only possible within a dream, while fighting off the dream’s defenses. It gets insane and hectic and just gets you so riled up while you watch it. This also leads me to the fact that the film makes great use of  dream physics and as such you get great scenes where the reality has to deal with the dream physics to solve issues that come up.

Many will, of course, question the 2.5 hour length of this film, but the fact is that this film doesn’t feel it. For the purpose of this review I checked my watch a few times to check how it really is. Personally I found myself only getting to check it after an hour at a time as I was just so really enamored by it that I didn’t think to do as often as you’d expect. The complexity of the plot really does require you to remain in the story as there is some detail i even missed my first time through and watching it, only to get a few more minute things later. The story and dream world is made believable as they made a slightly sci-fi world built within the confines of our real world and explained how they entered the dream in a way that you can see happening. Honestly I was surprised it was cleared up so nicely without making it a big thing, but honestly I would’ve accepted not finding out either.

Honestly the faults of this movie are minimal. I’ve seen other, more well known reviewers like Massawyrm Aintitcool have a complaint about a scene towards the end, but that is something I feel was just a personal issue with reading to much into it. I personally feel that, aside from the under-characterization I mentioned earlier this movie does slightly suffer from the same issue as the likes of Oceans 11 of lots of characters. Basically its hard to remember all the names of all of them, but you can identify them by actor name and their role, just it would be nice to know all of their names. I especially found that Ellen Paige’s character’s name is hard to remember Ariadne, and it is barely said and hard to remember for its complexity. Honestly, all complaints are kinda minute in the end.

Rating: 4.5/5

Reelization:

The culmination of a brilliant director, a stellar cast and a deep story that you want to follow just draws you in and doesn’t let you go for its whole, nearly 3 hour run-time, and makes you want to come back again to catch anything you missed. This movie shows you why Avatar was essentially a 3 hour tech demo in the end.