Immaculate inception

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2015)

The last pet project of Nolan between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (The Prestige) was enough of a masterpiece to show that a) Nolan is a first rate director, b) the Batmans are just a fun ride for him. This is the stuff he really is meant to do. Films like Memento and The Prestige. This is his source. The assertion is vindicated with Inception, which again is his new pet project between Batman 2 and 3. Again, it shows just how much more than The Dark Knight Nolan is capable of.
Inception is essentially Memento on steroids. The same central themes and ideas are present in both films, only this time, the budget is bigger and the scale eventually reaches epic proportions, with ground-breaking visuals, globe and reality spanning action and an appropriately bold and adrenaline-rich score by Nolan favorite Hans Zimmer. But the heart and soul of both features are intimately connected, down to small details. Likewise, The Prestige shared the same core with these two, even though obscured by the different epoch it was set into. But the idea is always the same, the question of what is real and what imagined and the loss of self trying to navigate through the different layers of "reality". There is always some major construct which is utilized as the catalyst to spawn alternate realities. In Memento it was amnesia, in The Prestige, magic (or science), in Inception, dreams. In all cases the main character is on some kind of redemption mission for the demise of his beloved one. The similarities between Memento and Inception in particular don't stop there. Both have protagonists advancing past the point where they can tell fantasy from reality. Even the plot device used to distinguish the two (tattoos in Memento, "totems" in Inception) is identical.
But of course, Inception isn't just a rehash of the previous two Nolan powerhouses. If it did, it would be instantly dismissed, regardless of big cast and production values. The way it handles the concept of dream manipulation and the "dream within a dream" layers is singularly original, both in principle and in its visual execution. The most compelling part of the concept is the dilating time, as one proceeds from one dream layer into another and it is utilized to the limit to advance major plot points. The movie also stays remarkably true to the rules it sets. There is a spectacular action sequence taking place inside a rotating corridor (don't ask), where events taking split second in one dream layer are accurately portrayed to correspond to a few seconds in the next layer due to "dream time".
The film is also a mixture of many cinematic (and not) influences. There is a good dose of Dark City here, a dash of Existenze, a tinge of Johny Mnemonic, a little bit of Dreamscape and The Cell, traces of Matrix and even an overall fragrance of Blade Runner permeating everything (including Zimmer's score). But make no mistake, the primary blueprint for this movie is Dark City. Many of the core elements like the reconstructing cityscapes, the lack of memory of a beginning, the labyrinth structures, mental and physical, the illusion of reality, are taken straight from there. This is only yet another testament of how important and influential this movie has been over the past 12 years, despite being criminally underrated. Many of the above mentioned films borrowed or blatantly stole from it (I am looking at you Matrix!) and Inception is no exception.
Thankfully Nolan knows how to put together a decent script and infuse it with originality and depth, while incorporating in an organic way existing ideas and concepts. He also avoids overindulging in points where his influences have already performed admirably. You might have seen the spectacular folding city sequence in the trailers, but believe it or not, this kind of gimmick is hardly ever used throughout the film and is tangential to the actual plot. Nolan knows better that to copy straight out of Dark city, he has other fish to fry. And the result is much more than just the sum of its parts. It isn't an adventure movie, neither a pure sci-fi nor drama. The script is clever enough to actually blend the genres together by avoiding over-exposition of any of them. We never get to know enough information about the dramatic background of the characters, or the goal (or even the outcome) of the operation, or the mechanics involved in dream-navigation and this is a good thing. We learn some stuff, but it is always sketchy enough to not draw too much attention to any particular aspect of the story.
DiCaprio has been staring in 2 out of 2 best films so far this year. Not bad and not surprising either, I can't remember him playing in anything short of outstanding over the past 6 years. But Inception is primarily an ensemble piece and the extended, all-around superb cast (a Nolan trademark by now) really delivers in a major way, especially the smaller parts (Murphy and Watanabe in particular are brilliant).
Like most of Nolan's signature works, this one needs repeated viewings to take it all in, there is just too many things to digest in just one pass. But above all, there is material here that will really make you think deep, because the plot device used here, dreams, is something everyone is familiar with and you will be more than eager to juxtapose your perspective with Inception's interpretations. The questions asked (and the directions suggested) are, to say the least, compelling, and this is what great science fiction is all about.