Rollicking ride, great twist on your heist movie

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2011)

Inception is quite a clever film, though not perhaps in the way you might assume. It is clever because at heart it is nothing but an imaginative variation on the standard heist movie which might convince many that there is far more to it. That isn't to say it isn't hugely entertaining and enjoyable, but despite its subject matter – or rather its purported subject matter – intellectually it is as deep as a small puddle. And it is very much in writer/director Christopher Nolan's favour that, despite the apparently intricate nature of the plot, at no point does he try to pretend Inceptio is anything more than just a spectacular blockbuster. As for the heist movie, well, all the elements are there: the one last job (in this case success will allow the hero home to see the children he has not seen for a while – though as they are still young when he does see them again, it can't be have been that long), the team of 'experts' he puts together for the one last job – the master of disguise, the chemist, the sassy lass good at puzzles – and then the hero's fatal flaw, which we are promised could well jeopardise the whole shooting match. It doesn't, of course, but then in this kind of film it never does. So the template is the old conventional one, and all the film-flam about 'sharing dreams' and 'dreams within dreams within dreams' is just a new kind of decoration Nolan brings to that conventional template. I suppose some might think – though, I'll repeat, I didn't detect any attempt by Nolan to suggest as much – that Inception is some kind of investigation into the nature of reality and, possibly, guilt. Sorry, but it's not: this is your standard heist movie with more imaginative twists. It has it all: the countdown for the job to be done before disaster strikes, the something which goes awry (in this case an aspect of sharing dreams our hero, a very likable DiCaprio has omitted to share with his conspirators), and, this being 2010 (when it was made) very liberal use of CGI special effects. It is to Nolan's credit that those effects are kept well under control and serve the film rather than the film being a vehicle for clever-clever effects. My account is beginning to sound a little sour, so let me stress again that Inception is vastly entertaining and highly enjoyable. OK, so the team of experts are, at best, two-dimensional with no back story of any kind and, as usual the baddies are appalling shots who don't seem to be on target once despite blasting off enough ammo to keep a minor civil war going for several weeks. Oh, and the mysterious metal suitcase with all the buttons to press to get the whole dream-sharing spiel underway is never explained – dammit. But what the hell. Others, as is pretty much standard practice on IMDb are extremely generous with the ratings as though Nolan had set a new benchmark in entertainment, and if I am not quite as liberal, don't blame the film, blame me for being less inclined to join the parade. If you are thinking of catching Inception at your local fleapit, go for it – it is a rollicking two hours.