Inception

Rating: 10/10 (6 August 2016)

Christopher Nolan specializes in making smart films for mass audiences, and he succeeds completely once again. Not only does Nolan take a complex concept and make it easily digestible and also consistently entertaining, but he squeezes in a bit of a character study as well.
OK, yes, the rest of the characters besides Cobb are all pretty much just plot devices, but they are all completely necessary for the film to work as well as it does. That doesn't mean the characters are just cardboard walls that spout information of course. They are still infused with some character, but they are all pretty much one shade besides Cobb. Cobb originally takes the job of Inception, which he said was impossible, and secretly doesn't want to do because he believes it is how he killed his wife, because he wants to get back to his children rather than be "an old man waiting to die alone". He has been exiled because his family believes he killed his wife, but deep down, Cobb does too. He still wants to be able to go back and change things, which is why he keeps his subconscious version of his wife, Mal, locked within cages of his memories. He uses his free time to explore his past memories and pretend she is still alive, but Mal is just a representation of his guilt over killing her, rather than actually her. This guilt is so powerful that his memories of her (and his children) burst through into other's dreams, notifying their subconscious that he is being controlled. This adds an extra layer of tension to every moment. But eventually, Cobb is forced to confront his subconscious version of her, and accepted that she is dead, and move on to live with his children. That is what the famous ambiguous ending is actually saying. The point isn't whether he is awake or asleep. It's that he no longer cares about that. He simply wants to move on and finally be able to love his children again, without ever looking back or feeling guilty about his past sins.
Film was also the perfect medium for this idea. Think about how every time it cuts and a character is in a completely new place, we simply assume they just got there somehow. This film plays on that by telling us that if you can't remember where you came from, you could be dreaming. That is what makes that moment with Cobb and Ariadne at the market so mind blowing. Also, towards the end, when the film is frequently cutting between the 3 or 4 dream locations that they are in it often uses color to identify immediately which one we are in, so it never gets confusing or muddled. The first dream is blue from rain, the hotel dream is lit yellow, and the third layer is white with snow. Much of the fourth layer is done without cutting back to the others, but we immediately realize that Cobb is in the fourth layer, so once we see Cobb we know. It's simple things like this that makes this complex concept easy. There are also many hints that they are in a dream in the opening scene, such as the beach, the time slowing, and Mal, long before we find out how it all works. Then of course there are the fantastic action set pieces, such as the mind blowing and original spinning hallway scene, and the tense chase scene that leads to a tight squeeze through two buildings. The film works on every level. I just can't imagine a person who wouldn't like this film.