Review: Inception

"Downward is the only way forward."

Christopher Nolan's movies explore the dark inner recesses of the human mind, wrapped in larger than life thriller stories. His latest, the original summer blockbuster (such a rare term these days!) Inception, promises hyper-intense servings of these ingredients. A disappointment, then, when the film turns out to be good, with flashes of brilliance, but nothing more.


Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an "extractor", leads teams of people who enter a target's dreams, rendered literally as worlds guided by a specific kind of logic, and seek out their deepest secrets. Unsurprisingly, this is done for purposes of corporate espionage, although Cobb's previous line of work was different until a mysterious incident forced him to flee the United States. After a botched mission, he is offered his life back, if only he can perform a seemingly impossible feat: plant a powerful, life-changing idea in a target's head, the inception of the film's title.

The blockbuster end of the equation is well-covered. Inception is visually powerful; gobs of great-looking special effects are used throughout the film without feeling superfluous to the story. The choice of locales for the dream worlds feel apt, and a series of zero gravity sequences featuring team member Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) set in a hotel stand out as brilliantly conceived and filmed (they also avoid computer-generated special effects). Hans Zimmer's score revels in its gloriously excessive use of low brass, and the presence of Edith Piaf's standard "Non, Je Ne Regrette Nien" makes for both a clever plot device and an evocative sense of dreaminess (it also provides a meta-note of irony given the key role played by Marion Cotillard).

Yet when it comes to exploring our dreams and our minds, the film falters. The plot itself seems complicated but is surprisingly linear, resembling most strongly a heist movie. The same goes for the dream logic, although there are one or two elements that are a bit tricky to pick up on the run. Cobb's team, played by a highly talented cast, are cardboard-thin characters; they mostly provide banter and exposition. Lots, in fact, as the entire enterprise is overexplained; newcomer Ariadne (Ellen Page) has the thankless task of asking questions so we can hear the answers (although she is also one of the few characters with any depth). There is no context given to the role and impact of people with Cobb's abilities in the wider world, save one tantalizing hint in a scene when Cobb is recruiting teammates.

Most disappointingly, the story and its mysteries are revealed to be pedestrian. Cobb is haunted, of course, but his troubles turn out to be mostly the stuff of Screenwriting 101. The only other character with a conflict is the target, Fischer (Cillian Murphy), but the structure of the story prevents us from seeing almost any of it; only through Murphy's expressive acting do we get anything. There are the expected nods to the trouble of discerning illusion and reality, but nothing that makes an impact or feels innovative. Mainly, everything feels too standard, too square, too packaged. Where is the rich, ambiguous, maddening, conflicting influence of our dreams? Where is the atmosphere, the tone, the moody weight of our subconscious bearing down on us? There is promise in the suggestion of what Cotillard's character, as depicted, means to Cobb, but it is unfulfilled. Similarly, early scenes suggest how fascinating the fabric of the dream worlds might be, but an inability to wield a famous M.C. Escher image in anything but a cursory manner symbolizes the subsequent letdown.

One wonders if Nolan or the studio worried so much about audience comprehension they overcompensated in the other direction. Perhaps no movie with a nine figure budget can afford to leave part of its audience confused. Perhaps just getting the film made was ambitious enough. But dreams are such an intense, powerful, mysterious part of our lives, and to make a movie about them that says so little about us is a cinematic waste. Inception is good, but it could have been great.