Stunning visuals, interesting story

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2010)

Christopher Nolan, the director of such memorable pictures as "The Dark Knight" and "Memento," among others, has taken visual imagery and special effects to a new high, adding a fairly intriguing plot to the mix with his newest effort, "Inception."
And while the film tends to employ a bit too many shoot- 'em-up scenes, gets a little convoluted and drags near the end, it is nevertheless one of the better products of 2010.
It was a story that has been in Nolan's dreams for at least 10 years, now, in its fruition, it's living up to most of its hype - so far.
Basically, it's "Dreamscape" meets "The Matrix" meets "Mission: Impossible" meets "Shutter Island," but with enough originality to set itself apart from these movies and features a cast that includes Oscar winners Marion Cotillard ("La vie en Rose") and Michael Caine ("Hannah and Her Sisters," "The Cider House Rules"), along with nominees Leonardo DiCaprio ("The Aviator," "Blood Diamond"), Emma Page ("Juno"), Tom Berenger ("Platoon"), Pete Postlethwaite ("In the Name of the Father") and Ken Wantanabe ("The Last Samurai").
Story has Cobb (DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, "500 Days of Summer," "Third Rock From the Sun" TV series) as extractors- or corporate dream thieves, if you will - who rip off ideas and concepts for a huge company that profits from the acts. But when the two attempt to extract secrets from industrial giant Saito (Wanatabe), they are met with mixed results.
Having failed their mission, the two are now on the run from company goons, but Saito offers to clear things up if they use their skills to plant an idea into the mind of a corporate rival, Robert Fischer, Jr. (Cillian Murphy, "Breakfast On Pluto," "Redeye"). Evidently, planting an idea is much more complicated than stealing one, so Cobb has to assemble a team to do the job.
Add dream-builder Ariadne (Page), driver Yusuf (Dileep Rao, "Avatar") and forger Eames (Tom Hardy, "Thick As Thieves," "Oliver Twist") to the mix and soon the group has sedated Fischer aboard a 757 and is traveling through his subconscious. They must, however, travel through several layers of his psyche and induce a dream-within-a-dream-within-a dream to properly plant the seed.
Meanwhile, Cobb is fighting his own demons based on memories of his late wife, Mal (Cotillard). It's a relationship where the two created their own virtual world but it all came crashing down when they lost touch with reality.
Or did they?
That's the question (or problem) that left some viewers scratching their heads after seeing this film. The script is highly imaginative and compelling, but the movie does tend to overlap itself with cleverness until is almost becomes too intellectual for its own good.
That, and the subplot involving Cobb's little children is uninteresting and unnecessary.
Aside from that, this was well done on so many levels that the long running time and sequences at the snow fort - while annoying at times- did not detract for the overall enjoyment of the experience.
Perhaps released a bit too early for much Academy Award recognition in the acting department (although DiCapio and Cotillard stand out), expect big things for the visual effects and maybe the cinematography. We'll see.
For now, just soak in one of the more innovative and imaginative works you are likely to see for a while.