Entertaining but spoilt by trying to do too much

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2010)

Some reviewers have credited this film with a high degree of originality, apparently because it explores the relationship between consciousness and reality. However, I can't agree. Admittedly, it has been unusual for really big mainstream blockbusters to tackle this theme, but The Matrix did get there first. Worse, explore off the beaten track even just a little and reality-bending plots become a commonplace. A few examples that randomly come to mind are: The Others, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, American Psycho, Memento, and anything by David Lynch. There must have been hundreds of such films, amongst whose company Inception hardly stands out in terms of inventiveness or wit.
Again, some have seen profundity - a quality associated with the possession by a work of art of two or more layers of meaning. Whilst it is literally true that the plot of Inception has multiple (up to four) layers of action to follow at once, I don't think this is quite the same thing. I liked the idea of dreams-within-dreams-within-dreams, but a clever plot device does not lead to deep insight just because it demands concentration from the viewer.
What I did like was the idea of an alternative reality that gets harder to escape from (maybe because you wouldn't want to?) the deeper one descends into it. British viewers may be reminded of the TV series "Life on Mars", in which a 2006 man enters a coma in which he experiences a fantasy-world set in the 1970s. On waking up he decides life in the past was better and commits suicide in the belief that by doing so he will return there. Inception explores this idea through the husband/wife relationship. Dramatic tension comes from the fact that husband Cobb "wakes up" to normal reality whilst wife Mal takes the opposite path. For me this was the film's best theme, well drawn out by effective use of flashbacks and plot twists.
Less effective were the action scenes. The frequent switching between dream-layers made it tedious to keep up with what was meant to happening. Also, the plot devices used to explain how the layers were kept in synch felt contrived. Another problem with the action-stuff was that it mainly involved Cobb's gang, whose members never really come alive as characters, making it hard to care whether they got "killed" or not. (As to why he needs a gang in the first place, the less said the better).
All-in-all this is an enjoyable cinematic experience, probably best enjoyed on the big screen and with critical faculties put on chill-out mode if not entirely switched off. If only Nolan had dispensed with the gang-of-buddies-kidnap-car-chase stuff (which never really came to life anyway) and focused on the core drama of Mol & Cobb, then this could have made a really good psychological thriller, enhanced as it was by big-budget actors and special effects.