True Inspiration is Impossible to Fake

Movie Review: Inception

It's been half a year since Inception was first released in theatres to very loud and widespread praise. Since the film's home release last month, I have seen it a second time, and so was able to approach the subject again and decide for myself whether or not that praise was merited, or if there was anything to the criticism that has been lodged at it.

It is still awesome. There are movies that come along once in a while that can't help but stand apart from everything around them. They have a uniqueness to them that can't be mimicked without being an obvious rip-off. It's never any one thing, but Inception has a very specific way of telling its story, and I imagine this method is now one that will be irrevocably tied to the film.

Inception's premise isn't entirely unique - movies have been set within the human mind before to varying degrees of success. But in more recent examples that come to mind, that we are watching scenes play out in a dream-realm is a surprise (what a twist!) to the audience. Inception never attempts to fool us. In the first scene, as we see a botched extraction play out, the premise of the film is laid out for us in clear terms. The various accompanying elements are explained retroactively, but the story takes advantage of a newcomer to the business to exposit everything organically.

Director/writer/everything Christopher Nolan found in Inception a great way to have his cake and eat it too, and while he exploits that a lot, it's still fun to watch and I'm glad he did. It's a science fiction that never really feels like one - the technology behind extraction isn't explained and we don't really need it to be. We know what it does, we don't need to know how it works. Slow motion, which has become an action movie stylistic staple, is used here as a narrative device. It shows us surreal imagery that we can take literally. It essentially involves magic and ghosts but is never fantastic. It's a heist movie that can still be a heist movie and involve bombastic action sequences and explosions. The time that Nolan put into this film's conception is very clear.

In usual Nolan fashion, everything goes to shit, the stakes keep getting higher, and the situation becomes more desperate with every scene. This would all fall flat without a great cast to back it up, and it seems impossible to walk down a corridor in Inception without tripping over an A-list actor. Leonardo DiCaprio's Cobb leads the band of extractors, and masters the art of being on the verge of insanity under a veil of professional reservation. Ellen Page is Ariadne, a rookie architect who immediately sees Cobb's destabilization, and becomes the second lead in a subplot to uncover the mysteries of his past for the protection of the team. The team includes point man Arthur played sexily by Joseph Gordan-Levitt, forger Eames played also sexily by Tom Hardy (queer viewers can read into their playful banter as gay innuendo), chemist Yusef played by Dileep Rao, and backing the whole operation is Ken Watanabe's eloquent Saito, who joins the action to ensure his investment pays off. Cilian Murphy's Robert Fischer is at the centre of their heist, and only because it's his subconscious being explored, he becomes one of the more developed characters, and shoulders the weight with ease.

The band of adventurers are great, but the bulk of my acting accolades go to Marion Cotillard as the film's villain - the memory-ghost of Cobb's wife, Mal. There's a scene where Ariadne sneaks into Cobb's subconscious and finds Mal in a trashed hotel room, and it's brilliant to watch. Cotillard's elegance belies a very cold and detached lethality, made more substantial by Page's fear of her. The concept behind Mal makes her a terrifying adversary despite not actually existing. She's part of Cobb, which makes her as skilled at disrupting his plans as he is at coming up with them, and Cobb's emotional attachment to her makes her virtually impossible for him to defeat. Like her real-world predecessor, this Mal only wants Cobb, and attempts to destroy all his connections to the real world to achieve that. Their story together is tragic and beautiful, and it's not often that a relationship can hold that kind of resonance in an action movie.

And then, just thrown in for good measure, are a bunch of other great actors who I would call underused if this wasn't a cast so already bloated with talent. Lukas Haas, Peter Postlethwaite, Tom Berenger, and of course Michael Caine all play their parts well even if they're on the screen for such short spans. It must be nice for Nolan to be at a point in his career when he can get such high profile actors for what would have to be a throwaway cast for a less established director.

Inception hasn't been free of criticism, and the one that is I think the most substantial is that aside from Cobb, and to a lesser extent Ariadne and Fischer, the characters are largely one-dimensional, and it's true. There's not a lot to the support characters, but on the other hand, they serve their purpose in the film, and we are quickly made to like them. Cobb's backstory is unusually elaborate and requires a lot of attention, and this is already a film that's nearly two and a half hours long. While it would be nice to get into it a bit with characters like Arthur, Saito, Eames or Yusef, it's unnecessary, and this is a film with very little fat left to be trimmed.

Another criticism, famously lodged by the South Park episode "Insheeption," is that a premise being convoluted doesn't mean it's cool. This statement is true, but I don't think it applies here, and the ground kinda of fell out from under the South Park writers when they admitted to not having seen the movie. Yeah, the movie has a loaded premise and there's a lot to explain, but it's paced well enough that it's never overwhelming or confusing.

I'm not a big fan of bandying about terms like "perfect movie" but there is very little wrong with Inception. As an action movie, it's got very exciting and original sequences which only get more and more intense. As a drama and character study, it gets great performances from its actors and explores some very dark territory. And just as a film in general, it tells a compelling story that covers a lot of ground, has you on the edge of your seat, and is just a lot of fun to watch. Plus there's not really any room for a sequel. I'm interested what people will be saying about Inception in, say, ten years or so, but I have a feeling it will be considered for a long time as one of Nolan's crowning achievements, and an action movie on a scope rarely seen.