Intelligentsia!

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2010)

Trying to post a review of this movie is almost impossible; something akin to remaking Godfather all over again. It would be an insult to the genius that is Christopher Nolan. I was bewitched from start to finish, from all possible perspectives be it story, screenplay, camera, music, acting - everything under the sun that is put into making a movie of this brilliance.
Dom Cobb is an extractor, a person who owns the ability to penetrate dreams and steal ideas. Hired by a Japanese tycoon, Saito, he assembles a crew with individual capabilities to aid him in the ultimate deception - inception. Inception is planting an idea as opposed to stealing an idea.
The first half sets the speed and the concept. In fact the whole of the first part of the movie did what Matrix tried to do in three versions. It was complex, almost utter nonsense but believable and direct.
It is in the second half that the complications start and the director explores all possibilities of the ground rules of the concept that he had just lain foundation to. The movie peaks and falls at the right times, with the climax bringing the ultimate reasoning behind it all - which is even more convoluted and has lead to multiple discussions.
The one thing that struck me was that, all the actors are stellar ones, starting off with Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon Lewitt, Ellen Page, Michael Caine and Marion Cotillard. But the fact remains, the director managed to outshine them all, easily, as if he was doing it in his dream.'Memento', 'Insomnia', 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Following' all seem to be leading up to this movie which has the traditional Nolan checklist of a non-linear narrative, intertwined plots, intelligent dialogues and enough action.
A movie that balances entertainment and intelligence with heavy doses of either. I promise you, if you are watching it the first time, it definitely is not going to be your last.