an interesting and complicated movie

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2010)

I watched this movie after having read at the press that one must be ready to view a dream at three levels(a dream within a dream within a dream)-in the movie the levels are actually five not three, but the information of the press helped me to find a way through the film's maze. The press also said that this film should not make you feel that you have a low IQ if you do not understand it at once- I admit that all this prior information made me to strive to understand the plot and although I can not say that I understood everything I think I understood enough.
Many things are interesting in this complex story: the protagonist's personal love and family drama, the people that stuff the heterogeneous team that accompanies him in his final mission each of whom has specialty in the division of labour in dream manipulating, convincing us that we truly live in an era of specialization in all aspects of life, and of course the final decisive mission which spans in three dream layers-those that were planned-plus two others that were decided on the spot and to which not all the characters of the team participate.
It is really glorious to watch people trying to synchronize their actions within the environment of many dreams which are included one in the other like the layers of an onion's flesh. The variety of the dream environments is also astounding: the airplane, the luxury hotel, the snowy mountains(reminding the setting of the "The Empire Strikes Back").
The actors support ably their roles and the good point is the variety of characters that is presented:tough and mellow, male and female, intellectual and muscular-all have a place in the "dream team".To elaborate on the composition of that team which includes Di Caprio as Cobb, the leader haunted by the reminiscence of his wife which stalks his subconscious,Gordon-Levitt as Arthur, his mild "leutenant" an intellectual with quiet force,Ellen Page as Ariadne-the dream architect and star student in Paris who is the character that builds a strong bond with Cobb in the process of the dream, Tom Hardy as Eames-the toughest of the team physically and the one with the ability to change shape within the dream-an ability he shares with X-Men Mystique to find similarities with other movies- who is instrumental for the success of the mission, Dileep Rao as Yusuf, the chemist and ethnic character who creates the substances able to sustain a dream of such depth and length and finally Ken Watanabe as Saito, the team's financial patron and the one who has made a pledge with Cobb, whom the others regard as a "tourist" at first but who is reunited with Cobb in the deepest layer of the dream.
Cleverly the movie makes Saito, Di Caprio's employer and also companion say that the aim of planting an idea in the mind of Fischer junior aims to dismantle his father's energy empire which threatens supplies and the energy market as well as Saito's particular interests, thus giving moral credibility and the sympathy of the audience for a team of characters whose mission and deeds one could consider not always laudable to say the least.
For my taste the sequences with Cotillard and Di Caprio where sometimes too sentimental and overextended and Saito's (the character played by Watanabe) power and wealth rather unexplained and those points are the ones that I think made the movie a bit susceptible to criticism.
I liked the effects and the way space and movement were treated in the movie as well as the architectural elements of buildings and roads in wildly differing built environments as Paris and American metropolises.
I recommend this movie, for the originality of the scenario, the good actors and the fact that the heroes move in a variety of environments all having fine design and able to sustain a lot of interest from the viewer.