Nolan...bridging the gap between Substance and Spectacle.

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2010)

Inception Every once in a while you catch a film so incredibly intense that it blows you right back into your seat. This could be through a well crafted idea perfectly told through a potent medium of clever narrative, or through the sheer awe of mind-blowing visual effects. It is true that in terms of ratio, the latter is by far a more heavily relied on tool these days. You can attribute this to lazy directing or to the fickle nature of the modern "cinema crowd". But why can we not have both? Who says that the balance between spectacle and substance must be measured with all of the even handedness of a North Korean general election? Indeed this was a question that troubled me for some time and with the putrid presence of teeny trash fad "Twilight" ever looming it seemed as though all was lost. But alas I forgot one man, the ever brilliant Christopher Nolan. In 2008 he had more than a vision of a deep, yet thoroughly entertaining summer blockbuster. He was on a mission, a mission to bridge the gap between intellectual indie cinema and the elaborate glamour of Hollywood. With the success of the Dark Knight he proved such a feat achievable and set himself a stage to deliver something a little more personal.
Thus we arrived at "Inception" an intricate and complex journey into our very dreams. From the offset we are thrown into the world of "Dominic Cobb" (DiCaprio) a agent or "extractor" who through complicated futuristic technology is able to delve into our dreams and extract our secrets. estranged from general society and hiding from the law, Cobb is given the opportunity to clear his name and return to his life if he performs a very specific type of dream infiltration, "Inception". Despite objections from his associates that the concept of inception, or inputting ideas into another's dreams is impossible, Cobb takes up the task and the plot inevitable thickens. Some may say the plot was already thick enough, it is not Nolan's style to explain all of the in and out workings of the idea, he only asks that the audience embraces it long enough to deduce it for themselves.
There are those who will find this too much effort and will walk out confused and frightened in the first half an hour, there are those who will wrestle tirelessly with the plot in a vein effort to understand it and there are of course those smartarses who will effortlessly understand every word as it is said and will be filled with a arrogant sense of superiority because of it. (These people are second only on the list of irritable muppets to those who pretend to understand it on first input). The category which you fall into is irrelevant, as long as you open yourself up to the idea and absorb what you can you are pretty likely to walk away from this film enlightened in some respect. as I said, this is Nolan's bridge between substance and spectacle and when given the chance can dramatically transform your expectations. The energy put into this film by both the on screen cast (particularly DiCaprio and Murphy) and the production crew are simply breathtaking and show that when combined, a visionary director, a clever story, surreal special effects and a A-list cast can really piece together a modern masterpiece.
9.1/10 Sam Lockett