Inception

Reviewed by Marc Glassman

Inception
Christopher Nolan, director, writer and co-producer
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio (Dom Cobb), Marion Cotillard (Mal Cobb), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur), Ellen Page (Ariadne), Tom Hardy (Eames), Ken Watanabe (Saito), Lukas Haas (Nash), Cillian Murphy (Robert Fischer, Jr.), Pete Postlethwaite (Robert Fischer, Sr.), Tom Berenger (Browning), Dileep Rao (Yusuf), Michael Caine (Miles)

There’s a scene halfway through Christopher Nolan’s elaborate sci-fi thriller Inception that is undeniably charming. Ariadne, the architect of the film’s most elaborate dream structures and Arthur, the go-to second-in-command on their team’s heist operations are being glared at by everyone in the mall where they’re quietly seating. Arthur, played by the young, slim and fiercely intelligent actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt says to Ariadne, enacted by Canada’s sweetheart Ellen Page, “Let’s kiss. That should distract them.”

When they unlock lips, Ariadne turns to find that the crowds are still hostile, sensing that they’re the creators of a dream going awry. “Didn’t work,” she says but Arthur, while standing up, looks satisfied. “Oh well, worth a try.” Ariadne/Page gets it: he just wanted to kiss her. Her eyes register what just happened as the duo gets set to run away from the unruly crowd. She smiles.

Why did I like this little scene so much? Because it was one of the few moments of warmth and human interchange in the elaborate “new technology,” CGI enhanced, mega-thriller, intellectual chess game called Inception. Christopher Nolan, one of the more innovative architects of the elaborate dream machine called “blockbuster cinema” has made a film that is technically astonishing and visually impressive.

It only leaves you with one question: where is its heart?

True, there is a main story line that has a lot of emotional resonance. Leonardo DiCaprio is compelling as Dom Cobb, the leader of a group of thieves who use a “collective dream” technique to succeed in their missions. Though no date for the story is ever given, Inception is set in a future that resembles present day with one main exception: baroque dream states are scientifically achievable.

It’s DiCaprio’s, oops, Cobb’s story that propels Nolan’s narrative. Seems that Dom and his wife Mal were the dream duo for ages, creating brilliant fantasies and exploring the inner worlds of the psyche. But something went wrong. Mal is dead and Dom is on the run from the U.S. police. Dom can’t “go home” to his kids, which is the one thing he wants to do.

So: in the grand tradition of American film thrillers (whether they be westerns or noirs or war stories), he’s decided to take on one last mission. The killer one that could cost his life and that of his team.
But first, again in the classic story-telling structure, Dom must assemble his crew of outsiders. Arthur, the cool technical one, is Cobb’s trusted associate, a vet. Eames is a Brit and a little loony but he’s a master forger and can be counted on to work with Dom and banter with Arthur. Yusuf, the African chemist, is new and soft: can he handle the pressure? Then there’s Saito, the man who commissioned them for this weird heist: why is he coming along? Finally, what about Ariadne, a recent college grad, who has been drafted into service as the dream architect. She’s not even supposed to be on the mission but Ariadne insists on going—once she realizes the fragility of Dom’s psyche.

There you have it. Nolan’s dream team of misfits, on a crazy mission to break down the defenses of Robert Fischer, a soon-to-be billionaire scion of an immense fortune in weaponry. To succeed, they must plant the thought—create an inception---that Fischer should disassemble his inherited control of the weaponry industry world-wide.

Most of Inception takes place inside dreams. At one point, the narrative takes the viewers into three levels of dreams—which leads to a flashback. It’s quite easy to lose your way in Inception and, just like the film, wonder if you’ll ever get back. I know that I couldn’t figure out who was menacing who in the third dream sequence, though I did enjoy Calgary’s Rockies in the wintertime.

Inception is a technically astonishing film, the best since Avatar. It’s a sci-fi film with the classic problem: little romance and no character development. The adolescent boy in me says “just rave about how great it looks,” but the slightly more mature one growls “but what does it all mean and why don’t I care much about the characters?” Don’t you just hate growing up?