Mind Messing Inception

We’ve watched many movies that have had the dream element as the plot. Movies like Being John Malkovich (1999), The Matrix (1999), Memento (2000) and Mulholland Drive (2001) just to name a few.

But Inception is a bit different. It is a movie about dreams and dreams within dreams within dreams. It’s started with marauding the subconscious mind for secrets and moved deeper with the idea of perhaps planting a few ideas there as well.

It was a mind messing film for those who look at logic. I don’t even think if you were into Freud or Jung would help make understanding of this movie any easier.

Inception is a story about Dominic Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio), the Extractor, is a skilled thief, the absolute 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 everyone he has ever loved.

He fails in his extraction bid with Saito (Ken Watanabe), the Tourist, and is offered a chance at redemption. This last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible – inception. So now Cobb and his team of specialists have 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 no amount of careful planning or expertise can prepare the team for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move and foil their plans, an enemy that only Cobb could have seen coming but fails to tell the rest.

What writer-director Christopher Nolan did was more than just recreate the dream sensation when you fall asleep. He took it to many levels by building complete and complicated worlds that constantly shake you and make you think. And like Memento, as you watch, the plot begins to unfold and you start to put the pieces together, which makes this movie interesting.

Yes, you will agree with me that the background staging of visuals was amazing especially the folding of Paris, the disintegrating towers and rotating corridors.  Trust Nolan to come up with an impressive storyline and the haunting score provided by Hans Zimmer made this movie more intense and complex.

The movie also boasts a powerhouse of actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, the Point Man, Ellen Page as Ariadne, the Architect,the Forger, Tom Hardy as Eames, Marion Cotilard as Mallorie ‘Mal’ Cobb, the Shade, Cillian Murphy as Robert Fischer, the Mark, Tom Berenger as Peter Browning, Robert’s godfather and Michael Caine as Miles, Cobb’s mentor, teacher and father-in-law.

Hardy played his role as the sharp-tongued Forger to perfection. He seems the only one with the firepower to get rid of the armed guards at the fortress like mansion in the snowy mountains. Page and Gordon-Levitt although young in age, held their own in the midst of powerful actors.

As powerful the performance was, equally commanding was the ending. Some would be disappointed when the camera focuses on Cobb’s totem, which is the top. It spins but wobbles slightly as if about to topple when the screen blacks out. You decide if the protagonist is still dreaming…

My advice when watching this movie, ignore the timeframes on the different dream states. Although the math does add up, the sequence seem longer especially when the van drives off the bridge in dream state 1 (longest10 seconds), no gravity in hotel in dream state 2. Floating Arthur is tying everyone together after planting bombs on the lift to create a “kick” (3 minutes left) and Fischer struggling to get to the safe (60 minutes left) in dream state 3.

So go and watch and decide if you’re in Nolan’s dream state or are you living a reality…