What is the best way to approach a film? It is a question that has been asked for a long time, with no clear answer provided. Some suggest that a visceral approach is the way to go, while others insist that films should have great intellectual appeal.
Fortunately for viewers, “Inception” has decided to avoid such debate by giving us the best of both worlds. It is a film that engages the mind and captures the heart.
“Inception” is no more about dreams and corporate espionage than it is about one man’s struggle to escape the prison created for him by his past.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a skilled thief, the best in the dangerous art of extraction: stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state when the mind is at its most vulnerable.
Cobb’s rare ability has made him a coveted player in this treacherous new world of corporate espionage, but it has also made him an international fugitive and cost him everything he has ever loved, including his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) and two children. Now Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible—inception.
Instead of the perfect heist, Cobb and his team of specialists (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, and Dileep Rao) are hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe) to pull off the reverse; their task is not to steal an idea but to plant one. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But lurking deep in these dreams is an enemy that seems to predict their every move. An enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming.
Pardon the cliché but to say more would do the movie injustice. Like most good films, the payoff is most fully experienced after taking the journey. And for “Inception,” this journey is like no other I can recall.
Director Christopher Nolan leads us on this journey with great skill and grace. But this is to be expected for someone who has been working on the script for ten years.
His skill and grace are best demonstrated by the fact that despite the constantly shifting nature of the story, the thread between Cobb and Mal provides an emotional anchor of sorts for the audience. Acting as a constant for Cobb, their relationship is the linchpin of the story.
Since this movie works because of this thread, much credit is due to both DiCaprio and Cotillard. Their work magnetizes the viewer, drawing us deeper and deeper into their story. The dynamic between the two is about as real as anything I have seen on film.
With these efforts from Nolan, DiCaprio and Cotillard combined, this may be their finest hour yet. But combined with the terrific work of the other actors (most notably Tom Hardy), composer Hans Zimmer, cinematographer Wally Pfister, production designer Guy Dyas, etc., “Inception” is truly something special.
Despite this praise, I do not think the film offers profound insight into the nature of reality and dreams, nor does it try to. Trying to tackle such subjects in a 148 minutes movie would most likely lead to unsatisfying results.
Instead, this movie offers us a wonderful portrait of a man struggling with the separation of his dreams and memories from his reality. And this struggle is what allows for the film to have both its visceral appeal and its intellectual appeal.
Since I have longed for the day when I would discover a film that tugs equally at my mind and my heart, “Inception” is a dream come true.
