It's like REVOLVER but even better!

Rating: 9/10 (2 August 2010)

I hate missing the start of movies and one I rally didn't want to miss the start of was INCEPTION (2010). That I did was frustrating, not only did it put me ill at ease, unaware of how much had taken place, but I was worried that what I'd heard was such a complex film would be impossible to catch up with. Thankfully confusion led to clarity and I was able to enjoy ever moment of this fast-paced psychological thriller.
The ideas were complicated but the format was quite simple really, you'd get some exposition, explaining the "rules" of this world or revealing information about the lead character, then a grand action sequence. This formula was then repeated over two hours. Conversational scenes provided a lot of information to think about and the action scenes were very exciting.
As absurd as the film is conceptually it was impossible for me to be bored and remarkable that it could be played so straight. I think that that's one of the tricks and points of the film. In a dream anything, no matter how bizarre, can be accepted as real. Nolan's film is an attempt to create a shared dream-like experience, to draw us in and make the unbelievable believable. He toyed with a similar idea in THE PRESTIGE (2006).
Of course as this is a movie about dreams it inevitably opens up similar questions to less bombastic films exploring reality and fantasy. The likes of DONNIE DARKO (2001), REVOLVER (2005) and THE FOUNTAIN (2006) were all deliberately complex and provoked discussion. But Nolan's film, while challenging, is much more straight-forward.
The core narrative is that of a heist film, the characters are con artists, the action scenes are gunfights, foot chases, car chases, explosions and many other things with which we are familiar. Even the idea of shared dreams isn't new. I think this familiarity allows us to connect with the film and accept its fantasy much more easily. The technology that allows shared dreaming is seen in passing and only casually referenced but we accept it and move with the story.
Even the last job/mission plotting is little more than a familiar framework to engage us, with the "idea" (to be inserted into the mark's mind) little more than a McGuffin. This is a simple story told with complexity, just as with REVOLVER.
The lead (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a criminal who has escaped arrest and cannot return to his home and his family but desperately wants to do so. His motivation in taking this job/mission is that very prospect and it's his journey and not the action movie mechanics that are the real point and this is what makes the ending (in particular what the director shows us in the final shot) something to ponder.
Was it all a dream? Beyond that basic thought I hadn't initially given much thought to Inception's ending. But after looking at the comments online it got me thinking a lot.
The film definitely speaks to people on various levels, enough to write many essays on, but I don't think it's as complicated as many people are suggesting.
In this kind of movie the latter is the easiest to go with. It's that USUAL SUSPECTS (1995) reaction. It could be that all the supporting characters were "projections" created by the lead's subconscious to help him deal with regret and grief, resolved at the conclusion. But if you think about it this idea doesn't really go anywhere because of the ending's ambiguity. It could have been an interesting and very conclusive ending had, for example, DiCaprio's character been seen waking up without his colleagues, perhaps at home and then going to play with his children.
I'm intrigued by the idea that perhaps Mal didn't die, that they really were still dreaming when she killed herself and that he was stuck there without her, convinced it was reality. Going through the journey so that he can adapt his dream reality to this loss, to get over his grief and becoming happy with his imagined children. All the time unaware he's still sleeping. Is this tragic? Deep in his subconscious time may stretch but surely he'll wake up at some point and they will be reunited. This essentially renders the whole film pointless and there is no real reward in that interpretation.
Probably the simplest interpretation is that it was only the final part of the movie that was a dream. That the mission was a success but our hero has become lost in his own subconscious despite having resolved his issues. A tragic happy ending that leaves us to ponder what might happen when he really does awaken.