Gail sees a movie: Inception
I like the idea behind Inception more than I like the film itself. Considering its box office success and positive word of mouth, perhaps I am in the minority. Inception maintained a high level of excitement throughout and the action sequences and effects are first rate. I enjoyed the film while I watched it, but found it eminently forgettable. Why all the fuss?
Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) agrees to assemble a team for one last job of corporate espionage, so he can stop running from the authorities and return to his family. But Cobb does not break into offices; he breaks into the human mind. Inception is the process of accessing the mind (and planting an idea) through dreams. Business mogul Saito(Ken Watanabe) needs to convince Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy) to break up his father’s companies. But this mission requires “shared” dreaming convincing enough to fool the dreamer’s subconscious. Soon Cobb is joined by his dream team of Ariadne (Ellen Page), Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and Eames (Tom Hardy) in action sequences that take place in their shared dreams. Of course, there is the risk that their minds will be destroyed, and the subconscious is a scary place. This is especially true in Cobb’s case, as his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) has turned into a malevolent presence in all of his dreams, and threatens the minds of everyone on the mission.
Going into a film like this, you expect a fuzzy and convoluted plot, and Inception does not disappoint. In true Christopher Nolan fashion, the action starts in the middle and the past is slowly revealed. I like films where I have to really concentrate to figure out what is happening, and Inception is certainly that kind of film. The scenes of buildings inverting and crumbling, shown on those copious advertisements for the film, are still powerful. The parts of the dreams without gravity, featuring a floating Joseph Gordon-Levitt, were among my favorites. I especially liked all of the scenes that had the audience (and sometimes the characters) struggling to distinguish between dreams and reality. But one problem with the script is that there does not seem to be enough at stake. Where the characters in the The Matrix films fought against a dream world created by artificial intelligence in order to live in reality as free humans, the mission in Inception is motivated by greed. The ethical concerns arising from forcing an idea into the subconscious of an unsuspecting dreamer are barely mentioned. The weak justifications for the breach of ethics are almost an afterthought. This makes rooting for the characters difficult.
I still think Leonardo DiCaprio turned in his best performance in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and has been inconsistent in his lead roles. His Cobb is a bit dull and he appears to be sleepwalking through this film. It is great to finally see Ellen Page in an adult role, and all of her scenes make the film better. Page and Gordon-Levitt have real chemistry and I would have liked to see more scenes with them. All of the other characters on the mission are more interesting than Cobb, but we never get to really know them. This is a shame because Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe and Dileep Rao have plenty of charisma and deserve even more screen time. When Cobb meets his father Miles (Michael Caine) Cobb tells Miles that “you taught me to navigate people’s minds” and I wanted to know more about this interesting character played by the charismatic Caine. But then Miles disappears for almost all of the rest of the film. Marion Cotillard’s performance is so strong that she practically blows DiCaprio off the screen. The problem is that she only exists in flashbacks. It is hard to get invested in her; yet she could be the film’s best character.
When much is revealed at the end of the film (I won’t give anything away here), I was underwhelmed. The technology of shared dreaming and its many possible uses are much more interesting to me than the fate of the morose Cobb. Writer/director Christopher Nolan has made some wonderful films. But Inception lacks the heart-pounding excitement and subtle intelligence of previous efforts like The Dark Knight and Memento. Inception is enjoyable at times, but I expected better.
Inception. Directed by Christopher Nolan . Leonardo DiCaprio(Cobb), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur), Ellen Page (Ariadne), Tom Hardy ( Eames), Ken Watanabe (Saito), Cillian Murphy (Robert Fischer, Jr.), Tom Berenger(Browning), Marion Cotillard (Mal), Dileep Rao (Yusuf) and Michael Caine (Miles). Warner Brothers Pictures, 2010.
Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.
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I enjoyed your review though there a couple of things i thought I’d comment on.
First of all you asked: ” Why all the fuss?” Well i think it’s partly what you said: the movie ” maintains a high level of excitement” . I think Nolan did this, like any good writer especially of Science Fiction, by making the main obsatcle to overcome- Cobb getting back to his kids-, a human.one. I was rooting for him all the way, largely because of this. I think CN is a great story teller
About the cast you said about Ellen Page.: “….all of her scenes make the film better.” I don’t think writing for women is one of CN’s forte’s.It seemed to me at times a bit preposterous, a young, female teenage university student giving advice to a bunch of experienced guys involved in international espionage.
You wrote that Cotillard ” practically blows DiCaprio off the screen.” Hmm. I don’t know about that.. She’s certainly shaping up to be one of the one of the great modern actresses but I found her role, bit too over the top for my liking.
You said about the character: ” It;s hard to get invested in her” and yet “she could be the film’s best character? This seems contradictory.
You also said you were expecting” a convoluted plot” and then that you like films where you really have to concentrate. It also took me a bit to really get my head around what was going on, but once I did it was very satisfying, as was the ending somehow.
And one more thing: I can see what you’re saying abouth the ” justifications for the breach of ethics” but surely many if not most would agree that the end result would be a good thing.
Thank you so much for you thoughtful and detailed response. I really enjoyed reading and thinking about what you wrote. I understand all of your well stated points. This just may come down to a difference in taste. I had been hearing people talk about seeing this film multiple times, and while I liked it, I did not love it. I did love Memento and the Dark Knight. I enjoyed the flashback scenes with Mal and Cobb, but knowing she was dead took away some of my interest. Also, if he loved his kids so much, why the need to escape into dreams? I did not feel like I knew Cobb or his family well enough to really care enough about his journey. I liked Mal, and I meant that she had the potential to be the film’s most interesting character, if her character had been further developed. You wrote that you “don’t think writing for women is one of CN’s fortes.” This got me thinking about something that had not occurred to me. I was bothered by her weakness and the way Cobb seemed to dominate her. You may be correct about CN’s forte not being writing female characters.
I liked trying to figure things out, but I felt disappointed by the ending. To me, the idea had so many better possibilities. But as you point out, many would disagree with me.
Thanks so much for reading and writing.