Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

Inception rises above the typical Summer popcorn fare to deliver a heady, edge-of-your-seat sci fi thriller.

By John J. Joex

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Writer/director/producer Christopher Nolan is no stranger to well-crafted blockbusters as he helped revive the Batman franchise with Batman Begins in 2005 then launched the Caped Crusader into the stratosphere in 2008 with The Dark Knight. With his latest release, Inception, he once again delivers a blockbuster-style film, but this time with some techno-sci fi flavorings and with an intricate, through-the-maze plot which will keep movie goers’ heads spinning and the gears of their minds cranking hours after the last spool has run.

The movie centers on Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Dom Cobb who, with the help of his illicit team, can enter people’s minds to steel their deepest secrets. Cobb is “auditioned” by a man named Saito (Ken Watanabe) who has a very special job for him. He wants Cobb not to steal a secret but to employ “inception” to plant an idea in someone’s mind. A rival energy company’s owner is on his death bed and will pass his company on to his son. Saito wants his son to divest the company before it can gain a virtual monopoly on the energy industry and he wants Cobb to place the idea within his mind. In order to do this, they must delve deep into the man’s psyche by placing a dream within a dream within a dream. This is a difficult task made worse by the fact that Cobb himself might pose a threat to the endeavor because of repressed memories of his dead wife that keep interfering with his dream infiltrations.

That short summary barely does justice to the tightly scripted, labyrinthine plot that Nolan penned for this movie, but then I could fill up several pages and still not cover all the details. And the fact is that the less you know going in with the movie, the better. The film starts off with a breathless pace as it throws you right in the middle of the action and barely eases up on the accelerator throughout the full two and a half hours of its running time. You don’t understand the opening sequence and it almost becomes an afterthought as the film pulls you through the tunnels of the maze, but ultimately everything comes together by mind-bending the end. And while films like this often use their breakneck pace to hurry the viewers along so they don’t ask too many questions and fail to notice any plot-holes along the way, Inception does not fall prey to this cop-out. I kept score as best I could throughout the film, and I noticed very little in the way of loose ends. The film delivers a smart, tight thriller that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat from start to finish and never becomes tedious or muddled or gets lost in its own intricacies.

Which is not to say that it may not leave some people scratching their heads by the time the credits roll. This is the type of film that demands multiple viewings to appreciate all the details and that will likely not suffer the law of diminishing returns with increased exposure as it has some depth to raise it above the level of a simple action flick. Inception explores the implications of delving into the dreamworld and how that can become a more attractive, addictive reality than the world we live in. Cobb experienced this and now suffers its consequences which impedes his ability to do his job even though carrying that out is the only way he can eventually return to the very real family he is separated from. The film explores some pretty heady territory, and without the right person at the helm it could quickly derail and turn into a pretentious, byzantine mess. But Nolan adroitly carries the plot and underlying themes forward to keep the movie interesting to the viewers as a thriller while also infusing it with depth and relevance.

Nolan also assembles a near flawless cast with DiCaprio stepping up as the tortured Cobb struggling to put his past behind him and rediscover how to find his place in the real world he has become disconnected from. Watanabe holds his own next to the star playing an ambiguous role as the person who may be an ally or an enemy or both rolled into one. Each of the other actors make a stand as well and manage to carve out their place in a movie which could easily swallow up lesser or unengaged talent. Michael Kane (previously teaming with Nolan as Alfred in his two Batman films) even makes a couple of brief walk-ons as Cobb’s father.

Inception stands out from other Summer blockbusters as it delivers a much headier film than we are used to seeing this time of year. Far from popcorn-friendly opuses like Iron Man 2 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, it will demand a bit more of the audience’s brain matter and may ultimately fall short of the Box Office grosses those films will enjoy (though it should still claim a decent tally). But this one will likely still register with viewers long after the other two films and others their ilk have since faded from their memories.

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