Intriguing tale...multiple interpretations possible, maybe. 75/100

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2010)

Perhaps the most recent ancestor to this movie that I can come up with is "The 13th floor" which I really enjoyed...probably more than this movie. Whilst "Inception" is entertaining and has thrills, it also is very long. Don't go into the cinema with the idea that you may want to go to the toilet, but will refrain...you'll regret doing so. It's the length of this movie which may diminish its "repeat" viewing value...at the moment I think I 'get' the movie, so don't feel the need to revisit it in order to 'nut it out', like I did with "The sixth sense".
Anyway, the plot concerns a criminal - Cobb (played by Leonardo Di Caprio)- who has the ability to steal secrets from people when they are dreaming...or to plant ideas in their head when they are dreaming. He needs accomplices to do this and access to the victim. There are some nice details in the movie about the mechanics of this ability...Cobb allows the victim's mind to furnish his deception with its own detail, making the crime virtually undetectable. Cobb's ability is called "inception" and he targets people who have valuable secrets or whose actions can earn him a big payday by those willing to influence the victim via his inception.
The movie may be confusing to viewers...Cobb wants to up the ante in his activities in order to better the chances of success against his victims. That means dreams within dreams. And dreams within dreams within dreams. Watching the movie I did feel that I understood what I was watching, but sometimes I wondered if I had been lead astray...i.e. it struck me that what was in a dream might actually be real...but my initial interpretation was right. Some may be lead astray right from the start! That's assuming I haven't been!
Anyway, I'm just wondering if I have interpreted the movie correctly...on the surface level, Cobb seems to have an unsuccessful attempt at inception. Which leads him to be vulnerable to blackmail. Like the amount of dream layers in this movie (3), I can see 3 possible victims/targets in this movie...one of them - the initial intended victim at inception - was a ruse. I.e. not a failure at all. Which would make Cobb a willing victim of his own powers, perhaps. The surface interpretation is just the literal outcome of the movie...failed inception at the start, blackmail and then alternative job done for the initial victim.
In short, depending on how you interpret the movie, the ultimate 'victim' is either Cobb, Saito or Robert Fischer. Depending on who you think the 'real' victim is, the events of the movie change in meaning. Another way of saying this is that it might be plausible to view the entire movie as being a dream...having dreams within it...or you may want to pick out one of these elements as being grounded in reality...which is where the endless debate on this matter comes in...everyone may have their own theory on what is real in this movie and what is a dream.