Words cannot begin to describe this enigmatic genre-bending masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (25 July 2010)

As I read reviews, theories and just general thoughts on Inception, it baffles me how so many people seem to be able to put their ideas about the film into words. I instantly knew how I really felt about the film less than a second into the credits, but trying to comprehend Christopher Nolan's daring vision, much less attempting to put it into words, is one of the hardest tasks I have had to do for such a recent film. That alone should tell you the power and gravitas this brilliantly conceived pseudo-blockbuster has and will continue to have an effect on audiences.
In true genre-bending form, Inception revolves around Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), a man whose occupation is to literally steal the dreams of others. Using a rather incredibly looking device, Cobb can enter a person's dreams and literally extract their most treasured secrets. After a botched attempt on Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe), the man comes back to Cobb with a proposition. Instead of stealing an idea, he wants Cobb to plant an idea into the mind of oil company heir Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy) – the act of which is called Inception. Cobb has his doubts about whether Inception could work, but he brings a team together, and then the real mindbending fun begins.
Without a doubt, Inception is Nolan's enigmatic masterpiece. The film was hyped for months, but I can still not help but feel it came out of nowhere in how much of a chord it strikes. It is the kind of film that only comes around very infrequently, and tends to not have people talking until years after its release. But this film is far from a predetermined cult classic. This is an unequivocal blockbuster of the highest degree – one that never falters from its lofty and pseudo intellectual ideals. It obviously owes more than a small amount of gratitude to The Dark Knight for even being able to get made in the first place, but even more to the likes of The Matrix, Dark City, Blade Runner, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and so many more like them.
The praise for this film comes specifically out of the script and the sheer ideas driving the film. Dreams and the imagery behind them are inherently difficult ideas to grasp. There are whole sects of researchers and theorists who devote their lives to understanding them, yet after an initially staggering explanation, Nolan manages to make sense of them and develop a whole film based around them. It is more than enough to chew, but it is still easily digestible. What occurs as the film goes on may baffle some viewers, but that is the beauty of the whole project. It develops and extrapolates on deep ideas rarely seen in the realm of summer movies, and even movies in general. There is just so much inherent ambition and drive to the film that you wonder why there are so few filmmakers willing to take the plunge into this kind of reckless, thought-provoking filmmaking.
The film is also stunning in how majestically edited it is. Incredible special effects, camera angles, and wire acrobatics are only the beginning of how stuffed this film is. The running time was always the only problem I had with The Dark Knight, and I feared it would work against Inception as well. But the opposite happened. Inception feels all too short by its ending, as if it could have been longer. The film is a riveting, edge of your seat experience at any given time. It packs on the action, drama, suspense, and thrilling moments at every turn, grabs you, and never lets up. I actually am quite certain I forgot to breathe during the last twenty minutes of the film, and struggled to look away during everything that came before it. It is just that strong, and that unique of a picture. It is the rare type of movie that ends, and you immediately will want to watch it again, no matter how long it is.
After an astonishing turn in Shutter Island (a film whose storyline and themes play all too close to this one), DiCaprio still manages to launch this film out of the park. He has just as much wild audacity on-screen as Nolan does off-screen, and he plays it with such recklessness that you can barely even attempt to think of someone else coming close to playing Cobb as great as he does. The man never lets up, and only intensifies himself as each scene passes. He is the emotional crux of the picture, and is just as riveting and spellbinding as the picture itself. He knows just what moves to make, what emotions to hit, and what chemistry he needs to have with the rest of the cast.
My only real problem with the movie, outside of it being so enigmatic, ambiguous and generally left to the audience's own imaginations, is that the film has very little character development for anyone other than Cobb. As great as she is in her supporting role, Ellen Page's job as Ariadne is to explain the film and its mindbending concepts to the audience. Joseph-Gordon Levitt gets quite a bit of time to shine, but Tom Hardy and Dileep Rao get far too little to do. Watanabe, Murphy and an absolutely incredible Marion Cotillard are the only ones who seem to get some form of development, but not nearly enough.
In the end, I know further analysis and multiple rewatches will negate this small gripe, but as it is, Inception is the must-see movie of the summer and the first great movie of the decade. Nolan has truly delivered a film I can only think to call brilliant. This is the type of magical filmmaking that only comes around too little. Everyone who enjoys watching films, no matter the kind of film-goer, owes it to themselves to experience Inception.
9.5/10.