'Inception' Movie Review

When Hollywood regularly suppresses originality and instead churns out nothing but a brain-dead mush consisting of tired sequels and tepid remakes, it's hard to believe that Inception's creation itself wasn't a dream. A film asking big questions about concepts of life, death, reality, that encourages the audience to actually think, made on a $200 million budget? The only possible solution could be that director Christopher Nolan characteristically confused and mind-bended a roomful of faceless Hollywood suits into submission until they just threw money at him until he stopped. And thus Inception was born.

Although it is an absolute joy that a movie this unique exists - an enthralling and exciting action blockbuster that really makes you think may never have been done so successfully before - Christopher Nolan's latest is not perfect. In fact, of all his films, it's probably his most flawed. But its innumerous strengths mean that it also sits alongside Memento as his best work and even trumps the LA noir as his most perplexing and thought-provoking feature to date.

There are many niggles. The soon to be famous zero-gravity duel, where Gordon-Levitt's Arthur tackles a suited goon in a rotating corridor, is truly spectacular, alone making the best case for Nolan's penchant for shooting special effects in-camera rather than via CGI. The rest of the action leading up to this point is also, considering the globe-spanning locales, comparative with classic Bond. Unfortunately, the climactic set-piece set in a snowy mountain hospital is something of a damp squib. With the entire picture leading to this moment, Nolan unwisely puts the focus on a less exciting human drama, with any tension removed by relentless cross-cutting.

It's at this point, where the film takes place simultaneously on four different "levels" of dreaming, that it becomes apparent that Nolan is simply juggling too many ideas at once. There's just too much information crammed into the film and you'd really think it would be possible that, having developed the script over the course of a decade, Nolan could have made Inception leaner without having to sacrifice its significant smarts.

As a cost of introducing and running with such original ideas, there was always going to be some exposition within Inception. That Nolan stuffs so many ideas into the film means exposition is necessary to the point that it takes up a rather large portion of the film and it seems his cast spend an awful lot of their time merely relaying the plot to us.

Which is why Nolan should be thankful that he can, at this point in his career, bag any actor in the world. For while Inception's characters don't have much personality - they are, for the most part, archetypes or ways of just explaining what's going on - the actors filling those roles do. As with his Batman franchise, Nolan shows with Inception that he has an unparalleled eye for casting and Inception's actor's roster is a breathless list of award-winners, established powerhouses and rising talents.

From Gordon-Levitt, dry and intellectual as Arthur, to Ellen Page, wide-eyed and ambitious as Ariadne, to Michael Caine, ever a warm presence as Cobb's father-in-law, they are all excellent. But even the standouts, a sympathetic Cillian Murphy, a cool Ken Watanabe and, especially, a roguish Tom Hardy, are eclipsed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Fresh from Shutter Island and taking on the role of the similarly disturbed Cobb, a man who is only on the surface a calm and collected crook, DiCaprio is here, as Nolan has recently described him, a rare mixture of movie star - with easy charm and charisma - and powerhouse acting talent. He is now unquestionably one of the best of his generation.

After mastering the technique on The Dark Knight, Nolan seems to now possess that rare ability to effortlessly craft winning blockbusters. Every frame looks like a million dollars thanks to cinematographer Wally Pfister beautifully capturing Inception's diverse locations and Nolan's gorgeously-designed sets. Not just that, but the director manages to keep everything, even the lengthier strands of expositionary dialogue, moving at a lightning speed.

But pretty views and talented acting have been done before. Rather, it's Inception's position as a film with grand ideas that makes it so unique and so compelling. Like The Matrix before it, Inception wraps an action drama around questions regarding your interpretation of reality, this time without the burden of a lead actor so wooden you could make a cabinet out of him. It also asks some pretty tough questions about life - for instance, whether the memory of a person alone can keep them alive forever - and death.

Inception will also, as in The Matrix, leave you debating which is preferable: blissful ignorance or hard fact. With our lead a trapped, isolated figure only happy when in a dreamscape of his creation and Murphy's Robert Fischer allowed to reconcile with his unloving father (Pete Postlethwaite) only in his dreams, we are made to ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions. Questions that rival the complexity of why there are those who still refer to Nolan as a cold director when he can create immensely moving pieces of work such as this. Not only is Inception a heartfelt creation but, with the recurring appearances of Cobb's dead wife, relentlessly invading his dreams and refusing to let him forget her passing, and a final moment that everyone will soon be talking about, Inception is, quite simply, haunting.

Yet a mostly cerebral director Christopher Nolan does remain, and smarts definitely outweigh emotions in Inception. Exploration and explanation of dream logic and Nolan's concept of shared dreaming is fascinating, especially as much of it can be applied to our own dreaming experiences. Visually, it's Eternal Sunshine on a much bigger scale, with not just a house but whole skyscrapers crumbling into the sea, and freight trains ploughing through city streets. This is one mega-budget blockbuster where you can clearly see where the money's gone. As Paris folds in on itself and the rules of time and space are bent, to call Inception 'ambitious' would be an understatement. But that a film can be so ambitious and succeed so admirably at it is a very, very rare thing indeed.

Like cinematic Sudoku, Inception will have your mind doing somersaults. Christopher Nolan, at this moment in line to becoming the most financially successful director on the planet behind James Cameron, invites you to solve intricate puzzles upon puzzles while holding your interest with a story of genuine emotion. Ultimately, an iconic final shot will divide the audience into two camps of thought, but most viewers should come away elated at the small chance that Hollywood cinema might have just begun producing smart, challenging movies again.