Well structured pic on the power of human mind, but...

Rating: 7/10 (15 October 2010)

No doubt the 148 minute time-run of "Inception" does not bore the viewer who keeps almost attached to the screen in order to follow each passage, trying not to lose any little piece which may be essential to understand the whole. Indeed, the picture is well structured, each passage well explained, each step told and retold, so that we are led through without getting lost in the apparent maze. The power of human mind appears as something infinite, but well controllable. In the end, everything gets a meaning, every piece matches with the others. But this was in my opinion also the limit of the movie, the pretence that human dreams, which are still considered as part of the most irrational side of man, may become so lucidly rational. We find Dom Cobb (Leonardo di Caprio) planning dreams, structuring them into more levels, a true architect of the mind, stealing ideas, introducing ideas into other people's mind, as if, in the end, the human mind were only reason and control. As if any mystery were cancelled and each one became a vulnerable puppet whose most inner secrets could be stolen from deep within the subconscious. I am probably an incurable supporter of the mystery of human beings, and cannot accept too much rationality, but this aspect of the movie in a way disappointed me. Thankfully the character of Mal, Cobb's wife, helps give the movie some sense of the uncontrollable within human life, something belonging to emotion and memories, which may be stronger, against any rational power. And, in the end, we are also no longer sure of the distinction between dream and reality, which urges the viewer to let some rationality aside and let the mystery find its own space. A movie which however proves very well built, having a good direction supporting it, and needless to say, the always talented performance by Di Caprio leaves the mark.