Film : Inception (2010)Director & Writer : Christopher Nolan
Producer : Emma Thomas,Christopher Nolan
Music : Hans Zimmer
Cast : Leonardo DiCaprio,Ken Watanabe,Joseph Gordon-Levitt,Ellen Page,Tom Hardy,Marion Cotillard,Cilian Murphy,Tom Berenger and Michael Caine
Language : English
Running time : 148 mins,PG-13
'Why did he make this film,people ?'...'Because we gotta watch it'...'He didn't waste the money,did he?'...'Because he's the director Hollywood deserves,the one it bloody needs right now!'...'So,we'll watch his films'..'because he can inspire us'..'because he's not a director'..'he's a master filmaker..a mindful craftsman...THE CREATIVE GENIUS...
Most filmakers make films,some directors make movies,but a creative genius will craft a masterpiece,this is one.Christopher Nolan who gave us the best comic-book inspired live action film ever made two years ago and extracted one of the finest performances from an actor who literally gave his life for the role returns with an original concept,an idea so intricately imagined and constructed,it requires maximum utilization of grey matter to just attempt comprehending the entire fiasco and if you thought that could've been said in a simpler,easily understandable way,then don't watch this film because this is not anywhere near Transformers,with explosive ka-boom metal mayhem with kindergarten screenplay,that's Michael Bay's territory,if you're still there,come out please.
This film falls under the category of mind**** genre,which means if you've been watching too much Stallone/Arnie/Van Damme/Vijaykanth films,you'll be sitting in the cinema with a Keanu Reeves expression,which is only one...DUH? This film runs along the theme of,most notably The Matrix Trilogy(1999,2003),2001: A Space Odyssey(1968),Minority Report(2001),Virtuosity(1995),The Machinist(2004),Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind(2004),Vanilla Sky(2001) and Shutter Island(2010,also the brilliant DiCaprio,click http://mindsparkenigma.blogspot.com/2010/04/review-shutter-island.html ).If you have watched these films,you'll understand why i believe Inception is a delicious potpourri of all these classics taken one notch higher with Nolan's genius insight.If you have missed some,i say go watch it because it will help fill in the blanks if u leave the theatre dazed and confused.
The film centres on the brilliantly inspired idea of 'extraction' of ideas from a person's mind via dreams and is depicted in an corporate espionage setting with a elite team(Joseph Gordon-Levitt,Ellen Page,Tom Hardy),each with a specific skillset,ala A-Team,Ocean's Eleven and films of that kind.The job of the dream team is literally hack into the target's dream and steal their thoughts,specifically highly valuable secrets deeply embedded in their sub-conscious minds to make a living.
Led by Dobb,played by DiCaprio,who like any other leader of smartass misfits in high-tech heist movies,is calling it quits and wants a normal life(did you noticed that almost all heist movies has this plot?,the i'll-do-it-one- last- time for my family/ex-boss loyalty/redemption stuff ),but hey,its Nolan's film,so cheesiness is out of the question !And for the one last mission,the boss,Saito(Ken Watanabe with a funny Jap accent) requires the team to do the opposite,which is to plant the idea/thought instead of extracting it,a process called inception,like planting a seed( pregnancy through in-vitro technique is where the word inception is used widely).The motive here is greed and monopoly,where high-profile corporate tycoon filthy play are abound.The idea is to plant an idea/thought in its rawest and infantile form so that it germinates and develops naturally as if it was an original motivation.The victim is the heir to a dying,super-wealthy tycoon,Bob Fischer(Cilian Murphy,with the same chilly look from Batman Begins) and the raw idea is one that will influence him to turn the tables on the wealth distribution of his father's assets so as to favor Saito to seize total monopoly of the world's energy business.What a plot,eh?
Now,this film could've easily been a straight metaphysical- heist film but what makes it stand tall is the complex psychological aspect of it.Leonardo DiCaprio,again,for the third consecutive time finds himself married with a woman with a fractured psyche,there was Revolutionary Road(2008),with a suicidal Kate Winslet(far cry from i jump,you jump melodrama from them in Titanic) and Shutter Island,with a alcoholic child-drowning Michelle Williams( ex-wife of the late Heath Ledger) and here its the beautiful Mal(Marion Cotillard from Public Enemies),a woman 'lost' in her own dream world,an Alice who went too deep into the rabbit-hole she's unable to distinguish illusion from reality,their relationship is portrayed in such a poignantly tragic manner it is heart-wrenching to watch.DiCaprio played his role to such perfection that he's now an expert in playing tragic-deep- loving- husband-of psychologically -troubled-on-screen-wives-with-a-hard-grasp-on-reality-as-a-result-of-intense-guilt-and-regret,nobody else can depict it better than a Scorpio man,and Leo is actually a Scorpio..hahaha..the guy is damn good and so is the rest of the cast actually,only downside is the under-utilization of the legendary Michael Caine,who is a staple face in Nolan's films(The Prestige,Batman films).
Technically,the film is a marvel.The cinematography is lush and awe-inducing and the visual-effects are grandiose,there's superb scene(spoiler alert!)where streets fold depicting the sheer creative power of the mind to imagine and manifest almost anything.There's even a revolutionary fight scene in zero-gravity which left me wondering how on Earth did Nolan filmed it !The powerful pulsating score by Hans Zimmer envelops each scene and elevates the impact and feel of the film perfectly,the score is uncharacteristically loud at times,which i notice is Nolan's trend(watch Insomnia,The Prestige,Batman films),his logic to up the volume in particular scenes is Hitchcock-inspired,even Shymalan does it.
The best thing about this film is not the above mentioned achievements,the real success here is Nolan's triumphant attempt to creatively depict how the subconscious mind works and the sheer power of thought.The way emotionally-entangled memories embeds itself so deep in our sub-conscious minds that its almost impossible to eradicate is shown brilliantly in scenes where Mal and the kids appear abruptly at the most unexpected circumstances much to the shock and disbelief of Dobb.The sub-conscious mind is a free entity,it cannot be controlled,once an idea/thought/memory is implanted...ahem..sorry...INCEPTED into the sub-conscious,it will germinate and evolve on its own depending on how much power do you feed it,meaning how attached or how deeply you feel or felt about the thought in the first place,if it was an idea or memory which deeply moved,affected or was experienced by you,chances are the frequency of the idea/thought popping out to the conscious mind is very high,just like Dobb.So,be very careful of what you think because you are what you think,you become what you think,such is the power of thoughts.If you thoughts are predominantly negative,then be prepared to face the consequences and expect screw-ups upon screw-ups because you simply asked for it !So,might as well we flood our minds with positive,uplifting and beautiful thoughts because its free !You don't have pay to think,do you?So,think....think big..just like Christopher Nolan did....Inception was his idea...it was a 12 year-old idea,he first presented the story to Warner Bros after he did Memento,originally scripted for a much smaller scale film like his 'Insomnia',but the stupendous success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight opened gates for him to blow-up the scale to a US$160 million film,allowing him to create this masterpiece the way it deserves to be made. What is the moral of the story here?Christopher Nolan incepted the idea of 'Inception' in his own sub-conscious mind and waited patiently for 12 years until he proved his box-office mettle and for technology to advance and then delivered his baby,a handsome,pricelessly beautiful baby for the world to adore,appreciate and love.Its safe to say he has firmly cemented his place as one of the finest filmakers in the world today,filling in the space left by well...my grandfather,the late Stanley Kubrick :)
Go get enlightened if you haven't !! Reviewed by
Amreish Siman
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