Nolan CAN'T fail! This film is perfect!

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2010)

Wow. I really mean it, WOW. A Hollywood blockbuster that doesn't only deliver action and special effects galore, but which also has a perfect screenplay, enough depth and which raises enough moral questions. A film which adventure/thriller lovers worldwide will praise for years to come and which critics are hailing as this year's best film (so far). Who would ever have thought that such a commercial film could pack such a punch? Yes, I am talking about Christopher Nolan's recent "Inception"...so it makes sense, doesn't it? Perhaps the only mainstream director who can actually make intelligent Hollywood thrillers (let's not forget 2008's "The Dark Knight" which will live on for eternity), he continues to live up to his name.
As we've seen from his previous films ("Memento", "Insomnia" and "The Dark Knight"), Nolan excels at playing with his audience's minds and twisting the story to such complex but perfectly understandable depths that we can't help but marvel and be awed. This is one such film, which I'm sure will prompt film lovers to sit for hours in cafés and restaurants discussing the plot and which, try as they might, won't have a flaw to its name. It takes place in a very near future, where the ability to link two or more people while they sleep merges their dreams and creates an alternate reality. In their dreams, these people can imagine and live out fictional adventures which might never be possible...but they can also unconsciously reveal their deepest secrets. There's a secret agent Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is known for his complex imagination and for being able to wrestle any hidden truth while jointly controlling their dreams; he's being hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe), the CEO for a huge company which seeks to control most of the world's energy resources. The only thing standing in Saito's way is Fischer (Cillian Murphy), his greatest competitor's son, who's about to inherit his father's entire corporation.
Saito approaches Cobb with the task of performing an 'inception' on Fischer. An 'inception' is when someone enters a person's subconscious via their dreams and plants an idea within, thereby changing their thoughts and tampering with their will. What Cobb is being hired to do is to mess with Fischer's thoughts and dreams and to incite him into breaking up his father's corporation; in return, Saito will use his contacts to free Cobb of the erroneous charge of murdering his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), thereby permitting him to return to the U.S.A. to live with his kids again. To do such a complicated procedure as 'inception', Cobb enlists the help of his right-hand man (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a talented dream architect (Ellen Page), a wise forger (Tom Hardy) and a respected anesthesiologist (Dileep Rao), but he'll find that so many different imaginations pose a veritable threat to all their sanities including his own, which is plagued by the memory of Mal and her fictional appearance in all their dream sequences that aim to destroy their plan.
To try and explain the plot in more detail is absolute madness; it's so complicated and multi-layered that I'm sure I'm not the only one who has trouble making sense of the entire mélange. But unlike other films whose complexity leads to their downfall, "Inception" is enriched by it and the audience doesn't find too much trouble in understanding it all as the film goes along. Audiences and critics alike have called it "mind-blowing" and, believe me, that's just THE right word to describe this feat. You'll feel dizzied and disoriented for many hours after the film's over because it deals with so many levels of consciousness and dreams, it poses so many existential questions and it furiously toggles between reality and imagination where we're dragged to question our own realities and our own convictions.
Like any other Hollywood film, it's packed with almost non-stop action, thrills and special effects, but the intelligent dialogue, the excellent characterization and the frequent twists and turns always keep it interesting. It's one of those movies where the suspense grabs hold of you since the very first scene and doesn't let go until the credits start to roll. It has Nolan's name and reputation stamped out all over it, and even being close to three hours long, it's so fast paced you won't notice time fly by (it feels no more than an hour long). Simply stated, this movie reminds us why we like to go to the multiplex, why we love the movies: it's both artistic and entertaining.
All of the acting is superb (I mean, just look at the long list of A-list stars it has, including Oscar nominees DiCaprio, Watanabe, Page and Oscar winners Cotillard and Michael Caine). The cinematography is perfect, the ominous score shatters your nerves, the production design is the stuff of dreams and the screenplay (its best asset by far) is as original and refreshing as they come. We're already in the middle of August and so far I must agree with what is being proclaimed around the world: that this is the best movie of the year so far! See it! I can't stress this enough. Rating: 4 stars out of 4!!