Cinematic excellence

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2012)

Wow, what a superb movie it was! Folks, if you ever want to give examples of how science fiction has to be molded on screen, you need look no further than Inception. Amongst the myriad of complexities and nuances, Nolan pulls off one of the greatest feats in direction and storytelling by making the movie watchable and fashionable.
Tackling the subject of dreams and dreamworld is never easy. And it is not easy here too. At the start of the movie, I believe most viewers must have been left confused and at wits' end. But as events unfold, you enter the territory of Nolan and he does what he does the best. Throwing the rules of Inception-a technology by which it is possible to construct, share and manipulate the dream world- here and there throughout the movie, Nolan combines the bits into a thrilling narrative. It is taxing to the mind to remember all these and to understand why the things are happening the way they are. But who doesn't want a movie that enhances one's gray cells, right? The direction is excellent and the fictional extremism notwithstanding, the story is incredibly credible. Performances of a lifetime are given by Leonardo Di Caprio who takes the role in his stride, Joseph Gordon Levitt- he is impressive and stylish and a brilliant actor, Tom Hardy- (yes, he was superb in his portrayal of Eames, the forger) and Ken Watanabe. Their emotions are almost infectious- when Cobb(Caprio) is frightened, so are you; when Arthur(Levitt) is confused, so are you; and when Eames (Hardy) is being brilliant, you feel brilliant too! And milking such juice from your actors is no mean feat.
Little details are taken care of- right from the consistency in the dreams and rules, to the characters' behaviors. A multi-layer dream is built and the target participating in each level of dreaming needs to be convinced to break up his empire. The rules built for the dream world are amazing and make sense. That is why this is such a good science fiction. As the levels increase, more of the subconscious of the target appears into picture and the easier it is to plant an idea there (inception). Different roles of others participating in the dream are also defined, there has to be a dreamer, an architect of the dream, the one who will plant the idea, a forger who will take the form of anyone as per the target's subconscious and a chemist who will make the drug for the sleep to be stable. Then there is the kick which is a jolt required to snap out of sleep- like say a tipping chair on which you are sitting. For a multilevel dream, the kicks have to be synchronized. Then there is the music which is played in real life to warn all of a forthcoming kick. The time-dilation, the limbo, and plenty of other metaphysical aspects are very intelligently utilized.
Plenty of viewings may be required to have a total grasp of everything Nolan is trying to say. Each consecutive watching keeps getting better just like Nolan's previous ground-breaking Memento movie. Just an interesting point I might add- the idea of the story might not be all original. It is a theme which had been used in a Donald Duck comic titled "The Dream of a Lifetime" released in 2002 and I admit the similarities are tremendous- but that is not to lessen the credit to Nolan for making us think through this one of the finest movies ever made.