Visionary - but not quite Great. A victim of Anticipation rather than Inception.

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2010)

Big business has always used any technique to gain an edge on the competition, Dom Cobb (Leo DiCaprio) is essentially a dream-thief, breaking into people's subconscious to extract their thoughts and ideas. He and right-hand man Arthur are hired by a Japanese businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) to take things a step further, instead of extracting an idea he is asked to plant an idea in the mind of Robert Fischer Jr, the son of powerful businessman Fischer Sr, who lies on his deathbed.
This process is unsurprisingly called Inception.
The plan is to try to convince Fischer Jr that he wants to dismantle the massive conglomerate built by his father by planting the seed in his dreams. This should enable greater competition and opportunity for competing businesses.
(After this is explained it is never spoken of again, not even why it is so important or the implications of such a move.)
So Cobb puts together a team of dream experts including the undercover man Eames (Tom Hardy), the sedation expert Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and the "architect" Ariadne (Ellen Page). Ariadne is hired upon a recommendation by Dom's father (Michael Caine) himself a pioneer in exploring the subconscious.
Dom tells Ariadne everything he knows and is surprised when she picks up techniques and skills very swiftly, Ariadne learns that Dom was once the best in the biz, but now is unwilling to create dreamworlds himself for reasons involving his ex-wife Mal.
The subject of any Inception must remain asleep for the process to work, in the case of this particular job it is decided that he must remain in a deep sleep, therefore they plot a scheme to perform the job on a long distance international flight where they have the time and access to complete the task. The fact that a multi-millionaire like Fischer travels unescorted and not on a private plane is never brought up
The elaborate scheme is planned to take place over three levels of imagination, the deeper into the mind that they go the slower time moves, leading to a crescendo where everyone on the three levels must complete their tasks before pre-designed triggers wake them all up so that they might exit the process safely, only they are all moving at different speeds and in another wrinkle dealing with varying degrees of gravity.
A by-product of this is the fact that the visual deadline is established about half way through the film: the spoiler-free version has a van driving off a bridge into the water below, only the van takes at least an hour to hit the water! Each time we revisit the damn van it seems closer than ever, but we can see it still has a ways to go.
Once inside the mind Cobb informs the team of the unique problems pertaining to this particular job, in normal circumstances if someone is killed in a dream that person wakes up unharmed, only this time the depth of the slumber means that the dream-dead will be unable to simply wake up, and their mind will float in limbo for decades unless it is saved by someone else. Also any pain or injury to the dream crashers (a more "Hollywood" name for the film by the way, The Dream Crashers!) results in mental distress and anguish, and ultimately brain damage.
Good thing he told them that after they were in right!
This becomes especially important if they are noticed by other characters roaming through the subconscious of Fischer, as anything unexpected or too different is set upon viciously by armed soldiers determined to wipe out the insurgents.
So for at least 90 minutes in the film Cobb and his team must perform their hugely intricate tasks across many level in Fischer's mind, while ensuring he remains unaware of the nature of their "visit" and open to their presence.
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The fact that a large portion of Inception takes place in the mind opens up some huge visual possibilities, we've all seen the previews with massive buildings and streetscapes appearing to envelop each other, the odd thing is the seemingly straightforward nature of the dreams If Inception took place in my feeble mind Dom and co would be having to ward of millions of naked Salma's hellbent on getting to me to lavish me with attention.
Hey it's my dream!
Inception has some impressive set pieces and remarkable imagery, but it lacks humour, heart and energy. Bar Tom Hardy's Eames there is nary a joke or smile to be seen through the 2 ½ hours, like the task before them the film is technically excellent but a little robotic - that doesn't mean bad - just dry and lacking in improvisation, passion or spark.
We shouldn't be surprised I guess, we should just be grateful that there is even a guy like Christopher Nolan out there willing to try to come up with original material rather than just exploiting the same old tired genre pieces and cannibalising the work of others.
Inception isn't the great work that many convinced themselves it would be for months before release, but it is a very good one. In this case though perhaps the populace allowed themselves to have the perception of Greatness lodged in their brains without any proof.
This is not called Inception though, this is simply the power of Anticipation.
Final Rating – 8 / 10. Breathtaking visuals and a labyrinthine plot introducing entirely new concepts to cinema are an indication of great creativity, but in this case not quite true Greatness.