A masterpiece that made me realize something. Fellow writers, read on. No spoilers.

Rating: Null/10 (25 February 2017)

It's 2017 and I finally managed to watch Inception, twice at that. Seven years after its release, I don't think it's necessary to go over the qualities of this movie again and bore you with expletives and superlatives regarding its excellence. The rating and the rest 2000+ reviews can tell you enough about that. Instead, I decided to present you with a fresh view on Inception's essence - my own one. Stay with me and I promise you that by the end of this review, you'll see yet another layer of Inception you haven't even thought about.
After seeing Inception for the second time, I realized that the primary concept of the movie - ideas, is in fact an elaborate tutorial on writing fictional characters.
Inception explores ideas and the way they affect us. In our everyday lives entering one's dreams and implanting an idea would be an impossible task. However, there is one place in real life (or not so real life) where inception of ideas is inevitable - books.
The author of a book isn't much different from the extractors in Inception. Because the author always works within his character's mind. He must know who his character is better than anyone else, in order to know who they will become by the end of the story.
In the course of the narrative, the author leads the character along a path that foreshadows and shows them hints about the future outcome. Nothing else - just hints. The character must arrive at the designated outcome by themselves. Thus, they go through the specifically constructed challenges and obstacles, which urge them to look at the world from a different angle and maybe realize a thing or two about themselves and the people around them. The author never explicitly says "See what I did here? It's supposed to lead to this and that." because that would break the willing suspension of disbelief of both character and reader - it would draw attention to the writer. However, he covertly (and cleverly) weaves the path before his character and shows them the things that would make them question themselves and eventually lead to a change in their mindset.
Yet, what drives the character forward after all? Their goal. But, let's face it - no character goal is truly that character's personal goal. Literary characters are just that - fiction. In reality, goals belong to the author who masks them so skillfully that the character believes them to be their own. After all, goals are the embodiment of a character's hopes and dreams and although their material form is usually absent at the beginning of the story, the strive to achieve them gives the character strength and perseverance. And what else in the world is intangible, yet strong enough to affect one's life? Ideas.
If you are just reading books for enjoyment and not obsessively inspecting each sentence like I do, at the end of the story you will see a character that has altered their way of thinking, but you won't realize the process through which it had happened. They would have either reached their goal, or realized that it hadn't been what they actually needed. Anyway, they would be a "new person" - they would look at the world with clear eyes. When you trace it back in the story, you might be able to tell how and why (provided that you are skilled enough in literary analysis).
But why is it so hard to determine the trigger of character development WHILE you are reading? Let's make it clear - it's not because you're not paying attention. A badly written story will scream "THIS IS SUPPOSED TO LEAD TO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!" ten pages before the actual trigger. Then what is the secret?
The thing is, just major story events strung together can't lead to character development that feels natural and the story will start screaming for attention like I showed above. Moreover, characters will be one-dimensional, will seem to lack firm motivations and goals, and their emotions will feel forced.
The secret lies in the small details skillfully placed at just the right moments in the narrative, which build upon one another to lead to the major events. Thereafter, the major events have greater impact and resonate into character development. Amateur writers won't notice these essential small details unless they have trained themselves to spot them through reading. They will think that the major events are the only triggers of character development. Then they will write their own stories without these key details and wonder why they won't trigger the same emotions like their favorite novels. Why they won't trigger any emotions at all. Well, now you know why.
Anyway, I feel my review turned into a creative writing lecture, but Inception perfectly illustrates the way an author develops their characters. At least that's the conclusion I reached for myself and the way I saw the movie. Because I'm a writer and I filter everything through my own crazy, maniacal, writing prism. My review may not appeal to the people who came for the action sequences or the ones who simply wanted to enjoy a masterfully crafted story. However, I hope my point will reach those of you who are just as literary crazy as I am.
I would prompt you to read this review after you've watched the movie, so you can see the connection between what I said and what happened in the story. Though since I'm placing this paragraph at the end of my review, it would be foolish to ask this of you, won't it? Yet again, I would prompt you to reread it after you've seen the movie. Or at least, to go into Inception with the idea in mind that it is an illustrative example of how to develop characters in fiction. The best of all examples.