Cerebral Audacity Which Lacks a Pinch More Complexity

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2010)

In the aftermath of The Dark Knight (2008)'s gargantuan commercial and critical success, there was a scepticism that hovered over its director. Christopher Nolan was the pioneer of multiple narratives playing out before converging, with the rug being pulled from under the feet of his audience come the finale. Yet these hallmarks were absent in The Dark Knight: complex-free (relatively) sans flashbacks and multiple narratives. Had Nolan sold out? He had certainly become a directorial brand. Relief for his ardent aficionados and film purists then, that Inception is the quintessentially distinguishable Nolan 'comeback'.
Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), riddled with guilt over his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard)'s death, is offered redemption by Ken Watanabe's businessman- with his culpability in Mal's death extinguished-if he can plant 'Inception' in the mind of corporate rival Cillian Murphy. The predicament is that Inception is the opposite to the art of extraction Cobb excels in, and doubts linger whether it can be done.
Cobb is the classic Nolan protagonist: obsessive, aloof and suffering from familial loss, establishing his personality in the opening twenty minutes is the reassuring tonic that Nolan hasn't defected from his complex film writing roots. Complemented by a failed extraction Cobb and point man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) participate in, it's an informative arc which segues onto the beginning of Cobb's purported last job. It's a familiar premise in a different genre for Nolan, yet the emotionality which is recurrently engineered struggles to hold as the crux of proceedings. When Cobb recites to architect Ariadne (Ellen Page) the coming of his wife's demise-aided by Hans Zimmer's versatile score- it's a rare occasion of feeling allotted to anyone in Inception. Because it's forever subordinated by the heist which takes, get this, within a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. It's the first occasion Nolan has struggled with allowing a film's emotion to fall into the background, the absence of his brother Jonathan on screen writing duties should not be underestimated.
Those who have seen DiCaprio in Shutter Island will be hampered by the timing and familiarity of Martin Scorsese's B-Movie homage as much as Nolan's project, the outpouring of sympathy occasionally weeps rather than gushes. And while DiCaprio's performance is competent, he is outclassed by nonchalantly joyful character acting from Tom Hardy and the dapper Gordon-Levitt; the pair's ying-yang chemistry enhancing their respective performances.
Enshrouded in mystery since it's, well, inception, Nolan's innovation remains visually stunning and refreshing amidst another summer of abject failures. Chase sequences through Mombassa, gravity-free hallway fights, carnage in LA and a mountain firefight are heart-pumping sequences choreographed thrillingly. The irony is that such moments could have been rendered expendable for a better film, for Inception isn't as complicated as had been mooted by Warner Bros. The inevitability which exists within Nolan's dream scape is incongruous for one of his film's, and the ultra-cerebral viewer, while in awe of the premise, may be yearning for the rug pulling trick Nolan excels at.
Curiously, there's no outstanding antagonist. Watanabe is billed as the blackmailer, yet his benign manner and Saito's development vanquishes the prospect of any animosity, which is reserved for the wreaking ghost of Mal in Cobb's dreams. More crucially though, it subsides the rooting factor that the film attempts to engineer.
For all its imperfections though, Inception is an enjoyable, grand-scale blockbuster which deals in the cerebral and thrilling, albeit not in equal measure. The contractually obliged addition to future projects is that Christopher always be paired with Jonathan indefinitely, and then you have the dream double-act.