Christopher Nolan returns to his roots

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2010)

I just got back from the theatre to see this dandy little film hit the big screen, and I am just more than a little blown away. I won't say it's his best film, rather I think he improves a little each time, as every director aspires to do. Nolan has a gift for crafting scenes that stand alone, both humorous and engaging.
Inception has all the elements of Nolan's previous films. There isn't really anything new, and personally I found the twists rather predictable. However, for anyone who is tired of the internal drama circulating The Dark Knight and talks of a third installment, Inception delivers a light, often humorous, complicated and above all original storyline that centers around a thief who just so happens to specialize in extracting crucial elements from people's dreams.
But like the premise for Nolan's The Prestige and Memento, that summary is just the outer layer of this complex labyrinth of what should be another masterpiece to the Christopher Nolan collection.
The interactions between the Dream Team are absolutely priceless. They reflect the complex inter-relations of Insomnia. The father/daughter like relations of two of the team members to the resentful buddy-sort of sibling rivalry between others. Leonardo DiCaprio is on-top of his game as Dom Cobb...as expected, honestly. Joseph Gordon Levitt as Arthur is once again allowed to be funny and quick, whether showing the team's newest recruit, Ariadne (Ellen Page) the dynamics of 'waking' from the dreamworld, or creating a clever diversion to avoid detection. Tom Hardy as Eames plays the film's snarky BAMF, as a lighter protagonist that seems to offset Cobb's broodiness quite effectively. And Cillian Murphy gives one of his best performances of his career, especially in Fischer's last scene with his father.