Dreams are not like this

Rating: 4/10 (22 July 2010)

I am probably one of the few who did not like this movie. I like Chris Nolan as a director. I liked _Memento_, _Batman Begins_, and I loved his rendering of _The Dark Knight_. The problem I have with this movie is two-fold: First, dreams are not like the way they are depicted in this film. In dreams, you are not conversing with other individuals about highly technical subjects. In this movie's dream sequences, the characters are continuously explaining what's happening, and what's going to happen. And they are involved in the complex programming for the next level of the dream. In other words, the characters think, act, and behave as if they are not in a dream at all. It's a lot of exposition - really, a whole lot - and in my experience, dreams are just not like that. Yes things happen in dreams, and yes there are plenty of visual and auditory sensations - but I've never had a dream where someone gave me a 15 minute detailed technical explanation of what was going to happen next. I guess I wanted the dream sequences to be, well, more dream-like.
Secondly, Leo's ill-fated romance just seemed to go nowhere. Every time that story thread comes up - the pace of the movie freezes. Leo has a way of delivering his lines very earnestly and urgently - and that's great and usually works well, as in _The Departed_. But if the script is weak - it just comes off as annoying and phony. I'm not sure what could replace the love interest thread - but it really hurt the movie in my opinion. I liken it to the relationship between Anakin and Padme in _Star Wars: Attack of the Clones_ - the second SW prequel - although that love interest was even harder to bear.
I think the idea behind _Inception_ is great and original - but those two issues sank it for me.