Nolan scores again with another masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2010)

Hailed as one of the best movies of the year, if not the last few years, by critics the world over, one has to wonder, does it live up to the hype? And undoubtedly, I have to answer with a resounding YES! It's highly inventive, disturbingly original, intellectually stimulating and features some of the best visuals ever seen on the big screen.
Laying out the plot in simplistic terms is hard to do, but in a nutshell, DiCaprio plays Don Cobb, a skilled thief. But he steals thoughts and ideas which people have in their minds. It sounds far-fetched obviously, but the movie makes it seem so realistic and plausible that you don't doubt it's possibility for a single second. When the movie opens, he unfortunately tries to steal from the wrong person, and is faced with a choice: stay on the run or pull one last job which would help to get his slate clean and in doing so, make him able to go back home to America to his kids, where he's a wanted fugitive.
The job though is the opposite of the norm, he has to infiltrate the mind of Robert Fischer, and "plant" an idea. This is known as "Inception". He has to assemble a highly skilled team and so begins the "heist"-like plot structure, albeit in a brand new fashion. This leads to altered states of dreams and reality, and as the movie progresses, our heroes have to race against time and take a journey fraught with tension and danger, with their very futures hanging in the balance.
To explain anymore of the plot would be to do it a major disservice, as there are constant surprises around every corner. And there will obviously be those who are going to voice their dislike of the movie, maybe due to their lack of patience for the plot to "explain itself". But I believe if you concentrate fully and pay the required attention, this movie will reward your intellect and never disappoint your invested time. Also, the visual effects are out of this world, sometimes literally. You see a fist-fight in a hotel corridor which rotates a full 360 degrees, you see the streets of Paris actually rise up and land on top of itself, you see buildings crumble with orchestra-like precision, and yet none of these scenes seem forced or over-the-top.
The acting is also superb, with DiCaprio once again showing his amazing range and impressing yet again. The rest of cast are all excellent as well, especially Marion Cotillard as Cobb's wife, who keeps intruding in his dreams and causing further trouble for him.
The plot is shaped like a film noir classic of old, there's the heist, there's the hero who has to do one last job, and there's the dangerous femme fatale who could be his downfall. And yet director Christopher Nolan weaves it all together so succinctly that it's unlike anything you've ever seen before. Action-packed, thrilling, and bound to have you in deep discussion long after the movie has ended, "Inception" definitely requires a second or third viewing. Not because you need to understand it, but because you want to relive it. A true masterpiece!