Movie Mini-Review: Inception

Christopher Nolan's trippy, intellectual new thriller, "Inception", is a very good film, but it engages the mind more than the heart.  I would rate it as an A-.  The story is a mashup of "Dreamscape" and "The Matrix": Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a man who runs a team that infiltrates people's dreams and steals their ideas, is recruited by a Japanese energy magnate (Ken Watanabe) to implant an idea into a rival's (played by Cillian Murphy) dream to get him to dissolve his father's energy company and forge his own path.  The movie is structured like a heist movie, where Cobb's team (consisting of new recruit Ellen Page; second-in-command Joseph Gordon-Levitt; chemist Dileep Rao; and impersonator Tom Hardy) plans and executes the "heist".  Nolan does an admirable job of structuring the story so that the three different levels of dreaming are understood.  He explains the rules of the game throughout the movie via the new recruit learning her craft.  Cobb jeopardizes the mission when he brings his own messed up psychology into the dreams.  This movie bears multiple viewings to see how everything fits together.  Acting is excellent by all, including supporting turns from Nolan staple Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard as Cobb's wife.  Art direction is outstanding, as is the direction by Nolan.  This is one of the better films of the summer.

Comments

[John]

This is one of the better films of the summer.

I'm sorry, but I must disagree. If you have read The Dream Master by Zelazny, there is nothing to recommend this movie. The only places where Nolan changed the plot was for the worse (e.g., the kick: it is a sensation of falling, except when you are in free fall?).

It wasn't as bad as GI Joe, but I still wouldn't put it on my shelf.

[The Out-of-Focus Guy]

"Inception" is not without its flaws: Nolan hand-waves away some inconsistencies in plot (e.g. why do people go into limbo) and juices up the action to get mass market appeal, but overall I like the film.  I do think Nolan has a tendency to over-write stuff (e.g. how complex is the Joker's plot in "The Dark Knight"?) and "Inception" does not resonate emotionally.

I can't compare it to Zelazny, as I have never read his books.  I would admit that some of the plot elements don't add up and you kinda have to ignore inconsistencies, but compared to most of the lousy movies this summer, it's still better. (But I still like "Toy Story 3" better).