Inception
Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is an expert “extractor,” a mercenary spy who can infiltrate the dreams of other people and extract critical information. Cobb and his partner in crime, Arthur (an impressive turn by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) employ a dream-within-a-dream trick as their specialty but fail to extract information from Saito, a Japanese executive who then hires them for the biggest job of their careers – an “inception,” or planting a new idea in the target’s mind rather than extracting an existing one. Cobb returns to his father-in-law, who originally trained him in the field, to hire a new dream architect, (Ellen Page, largely wasted as a prop whose “architect” skills come up once in the final heist), and then travels to Kenya to add a chemist (Dileep Rao) who prepares the powerful sedatives used to put the target to sleep, also allowing for a crazy and somewhat pointless chase scene. When the team is assembled and begins attempting to extract the information, however, they encounter two problems: The target has been trained to fight potential extraction, and Cobb himself isn’t fully capable of leading the mission.
Neither my wife nor I found the plot confusing – everything’s pretty clearly explained, but never at such length that you want to go get a cup of coffee till they finish – but the very short cuts in the final third of the movie are incredibly distracting, and a horrible choice of colors made the final battle within the target’s mind impossible to watch. For some reason, that final dream level takes place in what looks like a military facility in a tundra, and everyone – team members and the armed “defenders” who are projections of the target’s subconscous – is dressed in white, usually with hats or hoods up. Other than Ellen Page, whose long hair identified her, everyone else looked alike.
Other decisions with the visual and sound effects brought far more benefits to the finished product. When the characters are falling in the first dream level, they lose gravity in the second, meaning Arthur first must fight the defenders in zero-G conditions (I cannot imagine how much fun that was for Levitt to film) and then concoct a solution to wake his comrades up without the benefit of an in-dream “kick” (usually a fall). The team also uses music to signal an imminent kick within the multiple layers of the dream, and the use of ever slower music the deeper the dream-level helped build tension while also clarifying the varying speeds of time within each dream.
The film seems to skirt the major problem with its central character – that is, that Cobb is no hero, but actually a selfish ass. He takes his team into a high-risk venture where the main reward is primarily his and the risk to the remaining team members is terrifying. He doesn’t inform his team that he’s having a technical problem that has a significant negative impact on their chances of success. Even within the mission, his personal motivation to reach the goal causes him to stay on course even when the risk of failure is increasing. We have to root for Cobb to succeed because he has two young kids at home who have lost their mother and have no immediate hope of seeing their father, but that alone can’t whitewash the fact that he’s put four other people at great risk to achieve his own personal ends.
Of course, the main question about Inception is how to interpret the ending – once again, spoiler alert – although my wife and I both found it fairly unambiguous; her remark after the film was that she was “waiting for the big twist” that never came. The director, Christopher Nolan, has refused to clarify the ending, stating instead that the important part is not whether the final scene represents reality or a constructed dream, but that Cobb has chosen this scenario as his reality, to leave his fugitive life behind and “return” to his children. He’s also pointed out that parents who see the movie are far more likely to accept the concluding scene as reality than non-parents because of our deep desire to see Cobb and his children reunited, which is undoubtedly true. However, we both felt that the only hint of ambiguity in that final scene was the fact that the camera goes black as Cobb’s totem wobbles but before it falls – and unless you want to argue that it’s a dream where Cobb has altered physics but didn’t show it to us until that very point, I don’t see how the totem wobbles without eventually falling. (I admit it was a visually arresting shot, however.) Had Nolan wanted to make it truly ambiguous, he could have ended the film before the kids turned to see Cobb, which would have made it consistent with his other dream-states in the film. Nolan took care of some superficial stuff to try to create confusion, like keeping the kids in similar clothes (although in different shoes), but somewhere along the line, there was a decision to give the ending a little bit of Hollywoodization so the audience at least gets the cathartic moment of Cobb and his kids reunited, but for us that airbrushing pushed the ending past any question of whether it was real.
I’m shifting my standards slightly here, however, to the detriment of Inception; by the standards of mainstream Hollywood films, Inception was intelligent and thoughtful, well-acted, and sharp-looking. But if you remove the frippery of rampant gunfire and chases and the sentimental ending, there’s a smarter movie underneath that had an action film grafted on to it – a successful commercial decision that kept the film from reaching its full artistic potential.
If you like the concept of entering another’s dreams or thoughts, check out the film I mentioned in the first paragraph, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Keith, I really enjoyed reading that review. I had many of the same thoughts after exciting the theater, especially with regard to the many unnecessary action sequences that were simply clutter. It felt like a bit of a waste; imagine how much tighter and more interesting the film would have been with none of the Michael Bay.
I’m also an enormous fan of Eternal Sunshine. You’ve proven yourself to be far better than me at putting your thoughts to paper; would you be willing to review ESotSM for us as well?
It has been a while since I last watched the movie and I think your points are valid, particularly about the action sequences. What I didn’t find ambiguous was the ending. I’ve read some that liken the ending to that of “No Country for Old Men” but I also feel that ending is unambiguous as well. What struck me as definitive was the presence of Michael Caine’s character. He never appears in dreams so his presence suggests that Dom is living in reality.
Mainly agree – Ellen Page was eye candy and not much else…a human MacGuffin of sorts. I was very impressed with JGL as well as Tom Hardy, who is more cerebral than your traditional hired muscle in a movie such as this.
I enjoyed that the special effects added to the story instead of detracting from it. In a special effects extravaganza such as this it’s easy for the CGI to steal whatever performance is given. With Inception I found no such problem.
My only real problem with the story was the ending – the totem wobbles. I’ve seen a top wobble without falling and I get that in this sense that is what we’re supposed to see, but it defies belief one way or the other, which I suppose is the point. Leaving a story such as this with a hole in the ending seemed anti-climactic.
I’ll take you up on Eternal Sunshine. I had heard mixed reviews from my friends but I’ll give it a shot.
There are other deeper questions that come in that are detailed in countless places on the web. To name a few:
1. The totem allegedly can’t be touched by anyone else, but Dom’s is – does that change things?
2. How did Dom/Saito exit the lowest dream level – murder/suicide?
3. When Dom states he and Mal ‘grew old together’ yet it showed them as their ‘young selves’ when committing ‘suicide’, how did that happen? Was their advanced age part of the constructed dream? Was the term (and visual) a figure of speech?
One of the few truly original, innovative ideas/scripts of the past 5 years.
Also Keith, if you liked the style of this film, Nolan is one of our great young filmmakers and Dark Knight, Memento and the Prestige are all worth a look.
Loved Memento. Thought The Dark Knight was overhyped – had its moments, very stylish, but bloated and often quite silly. Haven’t seen The Prestige.
I’d have to rewatch Eternal Sunshine to review it … and probably won’t rewatch it for a while since I’m catching up on so many films.
I’d take a Prestige review in lieu of Eternal Sunshine. It’s a fine film, though with a few flaws that Nolan asks the audience to overlook in order to take them where he wants them to go.
The movie is really a summer blockbuster dressed as something artier. Eternal Sunshine to me is all Kaufman-esqe magic. It works quite well as a thriller, but it’s human, thematic elements seem like dressing more than the core story. Visually it is stunning.
http://meadowmuffinsofthemind.com/2010/08/09/inception/
I might be one of the few people to say this, but I still like Batman Begins more than The Dark Knight, Heath Ledger notwithstanding. Also, Insomnia might be his least popular movie (it’s got Hilary Swank, who annoys me usually), but I actually thought it was pretty good. It’s the last good movie Pacino made
Good review KLaw. Eternal Sunshine, Inception and The Prestige are all among my favorite movies, so I highly recommend you check out The Prestige if you enjoyed the others.
Are you a fan of Charlie Kaufman’s other films?
I think every scene in the movie is cobb’s dream. Dreams are weird, they have quick cuts too…
Or maybe not all cobb’s, but “a dream.”
You have to notice very carefully, but every time Cobb is in a dream, he has his wedding ring on and in reality he does not. When he leaves the plane and hands his passport to the customs agent, he does not have his wedding ring on, so he is in reality at the final scene.
I didn’t really like The Prestige. Once I figured out how the main magic trick worked in the movie, the “twist” ending did nothing for me. And none of the characters really have any redeeming qualities.
The Dark Knight was well produced and well acted but I thought it had a lot of plot holes.
Sorry, Keith, but The Dark Knight was actually quite good. Sorry to have to correct you.
The Dark Knight was good for a comic book movie, which almost inherently have plot holes and/or require the suspension of belief. Easterbrook talks a lot about how the trend towards the gritty, realistic reboots (Bond, Iron Man, Batman) are really no more realistic than the other ones. I beg to differ (Mr. Freeze, anyone?), but, yes, they are still fantasies. If you hold them up against other, reality based films, they fall apart. But if you accept them for what they are, I think some of the criticisms melt away. Part of the issue with TDK is that people wanted to hold it up as transcending the genre, which it might have done in some ways but couldn’t escape the tendencies of the genre entirely. So, for my money, TDK was probably the best super hero film ever (though I haven’t seen all of the old ones… I’m 27, for context) and might have been the most enjoyable movie I had seen in a while at the time, but was far from the best movie.
That was a really fair review. I loved the movie in theaters, as I felt it was the best blockbuster in years, combining spectacle with a decent level of intelligence. I’ve seen many people complain about the exposition, but like you I felt it had just the right amount to keep you engaged.
Unfortunately, Nolan is not adept at directing action. I thought the zero-gravity and spinning hotel stuff was really cool, but the snow level action feels empty. To the person above who says the quick cuts can be explained by being in a “dream”: what any of the action scenes in Batman Begins or The Dark Knight, as they feature similar directing.
Keith is right about Eternal Sunshine. Fantastic movie.
This appears to be a safe haven for people who found Inception and Dark Knight to be perfectly good but generally way overrated films. I think I’ve come home….
As far as recent Leo mind-f*** films go, I think Shutter Island was a much better film with a much more satisfying ending.
Thinking more about it… TDK almost reached an “uncanny valley”. It was a great comic book movie but, as it approached being more than that and being just a generally great movie, it was suddenly exposed for all its flaws.
Keith, I’m curious to know if you saw Shutter Island, with Di Caprio.
Can you comment on the similiarities between the two movies?
Comparing scenes in Inception to something Michael Bay would direct… sigh.
“But if you remove the frippery of rampant gunfire and chases and the sentimental ending, there’s a smarter movie underneath that had an action film grafted on to it – a successful commercial decision that kept the film from reaching its full artistic potential.”
I fully agree with this. It was the only 2 1/2 hour movie I’ve seen that felt rushed.