A beautiful surface,hollow content. Gifted cast wasted and Nolan gets stuck between reinvention and desperate pretensions.

Rating: 5/10 (29 January 2012)

Inception makes the average moviegoer feel smart and I would have zero problem with that,unless fans weren't so extremely elitist and condescending. I DO get it...and neither love or hate it. Limited vocabulary but maybe a good read?
DiCaprio has reached such super-stardom that can only be compared with Stallone,Schwarzenegger and Will Smith. Meaning:No matter who stars alongside him,he's the only one who sells the film.Just like in Shutter Island,Inceptions trailer only mentions LEONARDO.DICAPRIO.
If Watanabe,Cotilliard,Murphy and the rest(Oscarwinners and Oscarnominees,come on) co-star,I might want to know. Studios,respect actors...and ON PAPER,the mix of actors intrigues.
Plotwise though,it's all about Mal.Nolan had all the time he wanted to create a caper that was provocative or involved fates of main characters,danger! Morally ambiguous maybe! Yet,planting the seed in a business-mans head that selling his fathers company is his own idea is the result. HOW PG and unpersonal can we get? No room for both a new concept,a bold plot and developed characters...? Nope.
Understand it could've been to get a mail-man to call in sick the next day,heist irrelevant. 80% of Inception evolves around the caper,still it merely becomes window dressing,a distraction from the core,the human heart that occasionally beats,being the relationship between Dom and his bad conscience in the shape of Cotilliards Mal.
All scenes involving her are superb,it's a nuanced performance worthy of an Oscarnomination. Mal is dangerous,sad,disturbed, beautiful and Very dead. One scene especially involving a ledge is great,heartbreaking cinema. That the person who's most alive and complex is deceased..Paradox...but a good hint at the misuse of actors.
Several actors could just've switched names,their characters don't have personalities. What did you do here,Christopher? They describe rules for the dreamworld,dream-extraction,describe what's happening at the moment, that's it.
When Swick casted Watanabe in The last samurai,he knew the screenplay matched the mans potential. Nolan has with Batman begins and Inception twice wasted his talent...Murphy? Think I rather see him type-casted as sophisticated sociopaths alá Red Eye then see him as a blank page.
Inception's the star and while a detailed construction, intentionally confusing and complex,you DO have to pay attention,complex does not equal intelligent. As you take the ride,things move fast and you're not allowed to break and examine. It's only when it's over you realize you were standing still all along.
You are cleverly manipulated into believing the story makes you think(Cause you understand what you saw.Not the same..)or that your mind discovers philosophical metaphors. That you are witnessing something deep is shoved down your throat but depth is mostly absent.
Sure,the film deserves the Oscars. Things sound great,look great. Buildings become bridges. An orgasm for the eyes. Pfisters camera-work here is great,very colorful,crisp,clean. Imaginative art direction. I dig Zimmers less-is-more score. In general the whole film's eye candy,perfect surface. The inside...?
1.Alright,WAY too much shooting and "violence" going on here, considering everyone's sound asleep on a plane and thoughts are murdered. Would've been more intriguing with psychological tension instead of train-crashes and explosions but lack of a REAL physical threat only manages to turn suspense into a dream as well.
Sleeping boy vs. thought in zero gravity is so pointless,the impressive CGI just confirms Nolans smug self-awareness of his competent,VISUAL execution and just cements the surface statement.
2. Limbo. Wouldn't a dream-extractors worst nightmare be LIMBO,wouldn't it come up in a conversation between professionals at some point probably? No...not even mentioned until drama occurs.
3.For the 5th time,a womans accidental death consumes a wealthy,white man between 30 and 35 with guilt that will define him and her role is again pivotal. It's getting old and predictable,I hope the issues are worked out by now.
4.Last scene. It defines and sums up Inceptions feeling of surface reaching for depth and jaw breaking response,artistic pretensions,strained complexity for the sake of complexity rather then genuinely clever.
Nolan in desperation wants to wrap it up so it leaves us scratching our heads... I was banging my head against the seat in front of me when the end credits rolled.
He leaves you with two options,no scenarios or reasons that make or should make you come up with an own conclusion. Far from a thinking mans thriller. One of the two is a joke used when referring to funny,lousy twists in B-thrillers. So...
No why or how,just IF...IF films were people,Nolans own Memento,The usual suspects or Fight Club would blush,look at 8.8 and put a pistol in their mouth when the words"Smart,thought-provoking thriller" puts Inception next door to them.
The ending insults us,a cop out. Definition of a writer not knowing neither how to quit while ahead or how a journey is gonna reach a classic destination worthy of the plots seemingly intricate layers and ambitions. Sooo...he passes the ball to you and washes his hands with 15 seconds to go,smart lad.
A picture this celebrated for being smart should hold up under a magnifying glass. It burns up without you even turning it towards the sun,man. This is an experiment and Nolans monster looks good,but at times,it comes close to the IQ of Dr.Frankensteins creation.
DiCaprio gives a solid and mature performance,Hardy makes the most of what little the script offers and gives Eames mannerisms,charisma and a sense of humor. Cotilliard is amazing like stated.
The rest could've been portrayed by Gary Busey,Eric Roberts and Lindsay Lohan...
Nolans 1st failure is a mix of beauty,superficial intelligence and posturing. Caught between a flawed,pretty entertaining film and a bad one. Mediocre becomes bad when it comes to this director....so shallow.