Dream a little dream with "Inception"

Rating: 6/10 (18 October 2010)

I walked into the theater with high expectations. I wanted to love it! I wanted to cherish it! I wanted my dreams to emulate everything Inception was discovering in high-tech cinema. However, sometimes when you go into a theater with the highest expectations, you might just be, a little let down.
Christopher Nolan's 100 million dollar art film is an extravagant, mind-bending thriller, which creates an original universe of cinema. Sure, the logic and landscapes of dreams have been painted by such gifted filmmakers as David Lynch, Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, and Brain De Palma, but Christopher Nolan is striving to break new grounds. "Inception" is one of those films that sinks into your mind twenty minutes after leaving the theater. While I was experiencing the two-and-half-hour dream-scape opus, I was squirming in my seat. Maybe I was so captured by the visual elements, I couldn't keep up with the meandering plot.
Despite the wonderful performances by Joseph Gordon Levitt, Michael Caine, Cilian Murphy, and Ellen Page, I found the supporting characters to be very lackluster. In addition, I thought the story could have unfolded in a much quicker pace. I loved the concept of stealing someone else's dreams, planting ideas into their heads, and creating a subconscious world like an architect constructing a building.
The visual imagery of "Inception" include trains shooting through the middle of a street, skylines folding over, and separate dimensions seeping into one another. However, with a plot so loopy as "Inception," I didn't quite feel like I was in the best of hands. Inception reminded me of David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" (2001), which purposely didn't make any sense, but fulfilled the mythical and erotically-charged world of what a dream feels like. "Mulholland Drive" strives where I believe "Inception" fails; emotional investment in the characters. I believe the dramatic arch has to be the filmmaker's number one priority.
As much as I admired the visual attention, Christopher Nolan's acute direction, and Leonardo DiCaprio's complex character, "Inception" had me a little exhausted by the end credits. I still recommend seeing this wonder of a film and perhaps, it's worth a second viewing on my behalf. But I must argue; Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" (2008) and "Memento" (2000) are more of a masterpiece than the ambitious, yet tedious, "Inception."