Christopher Nolan is now one of Hollywood's most significant mainstream filmmakers since Steven Spielberg

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2010)

Despite being only in his early forties, Christopher Nolan continues to make genre films of the rarest kind. His films, usually written with his brother Jonathan, are regularly developed from existing conventional story archetypes. Yet he continues to raise the bar for genre films by populating his films with complex portraits of fractured men and his insistence in exploring their troubled identities. It is this emphasis on character and emotion, as much as visual flair, which elevates his films beyond the regular wave of mainstream Hollywood cinema. Following from the phenomenal success of The Dark Knight, one of the best films of 2008, the expectations for Nolan and Inception have been immense. He has spent almost a decade writing the screenplay and the result is an exhilarating but completely different animal to The Dark Knight. Whereas that film was a polished and near perfect arch of an action film, subtly including post-911 allusions, Inception remains a far more complex and challenging assignment for both its director and its audience. One of the most intriguing questions raised throughout this film is whether one can manufacture inspiration in the minds of others. It is a difficult and unfamiliar concept, particularly when combined with the task of establishing characters that are foreign to us. It is to the credit of Nolan as both a screenwriter and a skilled director that he explores this puzzling question with clarity, intelligence and exciting visuals. Inception is one of the best films of the year.
As with all of Nolan's other pictures, Inception plays with the existing conventions of a particular genre. This is essentially a heist movie with a slightly more problematic structure. The film, at least on initial viewing, seems to develop over only two acts rather than three: it quickly establishes the team without any overlong episodes of finding them and then the inception itself begins. The film thankfully cuts out any needless exposition about the technology that allows Cobb to infiltrate the dreams. Instead, the focus remains on the frequent and exciting action sequences and Cobb's own sense of tragic guilt. The visual effects here are on the whole inspiring to see on the silver screen. Yet as amazing as it is to see an entire city torn apart in slow-motion it is even more exciting to see how the dream world, and sometimes the dream within that dream, balance precariously because of Cobb's subconscious, as certain factors threaten the validity of the dream. For much of the film's ambiguity, it is striking how immersive and involved one becomes in realising how dangerous the threats are to the mission, drastically enhancing our engagement and the overall tension of the film. Although Inception may start in a highly confusing manner, it rewards viewers for their persistence by gradually revealing its secrets to the outsider in Ariadne and thus the audience, without it ever seeming contrived. With the exception of some overly long snow sequences the film is superbly told and its running time over two and a half hours soars by.
Despite his strengths with visual designs and special effects, Nolan still realises the importance of humanity in genre films, in order to keep the audience emotionally involved with the characters. Cobb is Nolan's flawed and tragic hero here and DiCaprio gives a powerful performance, one of the best of a distinguished career. His slightly monotone, whispery voice feels entirely fitting for the dreamscape and he applies the appropriate amount of intensity, as opposed to his exhausting role in Shutter Island earlier this year. It is testimony to the power of DiCaprio's efforts that the revelation about Cobb and his wife becomes a surprisingly poignant but ultimately disturbing new layer in the film's complex plot. Although we do not learn about the back-story of the other characters, all of the other actors here still give fine performances that regularly asserts their vulnerability and thus their humanity. Marion has a deadly presence on screen as the film's disruptor and Ellen Page is an appropriately skeptical and scared outsider. Amidst so many complex ideas it would perhaps be overbearing to include a lot of exposition about the other characters, so it is forgivable that we do not learn more about the team.
Inception may not seem as satisfying as a The Dark Knight because it takes the audience out of their comfort zones and their expectations for a particular genre. It confuses and disorientates, sets the audience on its feet and then throws them into disarray again. Yet even with its multiple threads, it still manages to be a completely compelling, original and exciting action film, with a powerful emotion core. It is testimony to the direction of the actors that they inspire humanity amidst the most absurd and abstract ideas. This is an extremely enjoyable genre film, overflowing in its concepts and its ambition, soaring with moments of exhilaration and tension. If there was any doubt, Christopher Nolan is now one of Hollywood's most significant mainstream filmmakers since Steven Spielberg.