An individual experience , not comparable to anything else you've ever seen on screen

Rating: 10/10 (14 October 2015)

The events in Inception can be interpreted as a dream generated by Cobbs subconscious to give his traumatic life a meaningful purpose with a comforting ending.
In the real world Cobb gets Mal into drugs. Mal loses her sanity, stops caring about their children and eventually kills herself. Cobb is ridden by guilt (symbolized by the occurring train) for being responsible for his children not having a mother anymore (for having ruined their lives).
From the beginning, the atmosphere breathes with "something just doesn't seem right here" moments throughout the film, without the viewer being able to tell the actual cause. Everything that happens on screen is a dream, with exception of the last scene: Cobb wakes up in a plane, the people around him are all strangers to him. It was his subconscious that made them the protagonists of his dream during his flight home.
The film is Cobb's subconscious trip facing his (symbolic) death. His personal purgatory. As old Saito tells him in the beginning, Cobb is "obsessed with the idea (to come home)": to find peace with Mal, and ultimately forgive himself and find peace in a life reunited with his children. Throughout the film, Cobb can't see (doesn't want to face) the faces of his children, because he isn't ready (yet) to take responsibility for what he had done.
Inception begins with Cobb being given the chance to find peace: Don't you want to take a leap of faith? Or become an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone?  Facing old Saito, his personified destiny if he resigns, Cobb accepts the challenge and the trip begins. The solution to Cobb's inner peace lies in himself. In one scene Ariadne (Greek mythology, rather obvious symbol) draws a circular maze, guiding him to the solution: to revisit his innermost traumas and find closure for them.
Ariadne, Arthur and Eames (all the characters with a totem) are Cobb's younger projections of himself. With their help he revisits his own past. The totems are the connection, they represent the different aspects that determine the human life: plain fun, chance (luck), strategy and risk. Life is a game and you are the player.
Cobb relives the key scenes of his life. The actual events remain the same, but Cobb manages to give them a different, comforting context (achieving closure) and a purpose. This corresponds to Charles Eames' "banana leaf parable" and there's your next Name symbolism.
The scene where Robert Fisher forgives his father and recognizes his deep love for him (cries over the paper toy windmill) is the turning point and highlight of the film. At this point, after a tremendous struggle, Cobb forgives himself for letting his children down.
Cillian Murphy's physical resemblance to the young Robert "Bobby" Fischer, the chess player, is so remarkable, Nolan probably could have chosen a less obvious name for his character, to make a point with this symbolic figure. Bobby Fisher was the inventor of a randomized version of chess, that rewards the player for his creativity by giving him many opening possibilities. To win more time to achieve victory, it is necessary for the player to keep making active decisions and keep moving.
Cobb achieves closure with Mal by convincing her (and himself) that they did "grow old together", and he fulfilled his marital promise. It all happened in "Limbo", a metaphorical concept of a different reality.
At the end of the film, it isn't important if the top falls or not, it's important that Cobb left it behind. He overcame his traumas and made peace with himself (forgave himself). He is ready to face his children, meaning that he found absolution.
Many criticized Inception for its complex, hard to follow rules for traveling through the different dream levels. In my opinion, the technical rules of Inception are not important to understand, because Cobb made them up himself (and thus don't need to be consistent or even true). If you had a semester of mathematics, you probably know that on a false premise it's possible to conclude anything.
Emotionally, Inception doesn't strike all of your senses, it's mainly a challenge of and for the mind in proportions and a complexity no one before dared to put in a single film. The extraordinary craftsmanship, the technical skill and the immense care for details, necessary to put a monstrous concept like Inception into a watchable and interesting film are truly amazing.
The most fascinating thing is, that Inception is a brain puzzle that offers several degrees of freedom in trying to fill in the missing parts thus offers you a very individual experience. It remains to be a challenging brain teaser after 5 years. The more you think about it, the more it shows its vast complexity and how much different things there are to discover. The more you think about it, the more you want to watch it one more time. Its greatness and its significance get more and more obvious, the more often you watch the film.
There are tons of symbols to discover during this trip: water, obscured windows, specific colors, watches, names are loaded with symbolism, clothing details, the number 12, Francis Bacon's artwork, usage of many of Carl Jung's concepts, physical resemblances etc, etc. I'm sure I missed a few. Just open your mind and it will come to you.
The key message of Inception is that everyone is the architect (how many times did you hear this word during the film? :-)) of his own fortune. Inception is a very comforting parable of life.
Chapeau, Mr. Nolan. In terms of content, depth and complexity, Inception extends the boundaries of the medium film by a large amount. This is the new benchmark for all future directors to come.
10/10 (Masterpiece)