Amazing!

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2010)

I went into the multiplex to watch this movie without much expectation. I had seen all the trailers, but they did not really give away much of what I was going to see, in my opinion. When the credits started rolling, I was amazed. This is the best movie I've seen in the past 2 years. The last time I had so much to say about a movie was when I saw Nolan's "Dark Knight" First of all the opening is top-notch. It builds up the suspense, and smoothly moves on to introducing DiCaprio's character to the audience. DiCaprio shows us the first "mind heist" of the movie. His character Cobb feels the need to go home, and stealing others' ideas so that he can buy his way back to the US. It is revealed that he committed a crime in France, so he has not had the misfortune of being extradited.
Cobb gets a job from Saito (Watanabe) to get into Fisher's (Cilian Murphy) mind and steal an idea. To do so, Cobb needs to build the dream world, for which he hires an architect Ariadne (Ellen Page). Cobb has secrets of his own, which are revealed in the lower levels of his mind, so to speak. He searches for a sedative that can enable him to create a dream within a dream within a dream. To keep track of reality, he keeps a top. If the top topples, he is in the real world.
Cobb is supported by an excellent supporting cast. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy are excellent accomplices in his mind crimes. Michael Caine too gets some screen time. Mal (Marion Cotillard) is an impressive Shade, the memory which keeps killing all other 'projections', which is the dream representation of the real-world character. Cobb is constantly seeking ways to assuage his guilt of being partially responsible for Mal's death. It was because of him that she lost the ability to distinguish between dreams and reality, constantly seeking 'the kick' - the feeling of falling that jolts one out of her dream.
After the heist is over, Cobb is seen going back to the US, clearing immigration without being arrested. He spins the top on the table, which never really topples by the time the credits roll. Perhaps reality was never good enough for Cobb, and he has chosen to live in a dream forever until his brain is reduced to mush. Perhaps he did go home. The viewer is left wondering, bringing this brilliant movie to an end.