Inception

For many, this film is synonymous with complexity—and rightfully so. Its intricate plot has more than just dreams within dreams but also ideas within ideas. There is more to Inception than just its plot twists, however. Inception is above all the most innovative idea to come out of Hollywood since Donnie Darko and an exhibition of fantastic cinematography, good acting, a moving score, and a compelling plot. This review, like Donnie Darko, requires some explanation as part of the analysis.

Acting

Inception is a star-studded cast of Leonardo Dicaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy, with Michael Caine making a limited appearance. It is worth noting that Christopher Nolan is one of very few directors to use some of his actors in multiple films. Gordon-Levitt, Hardy, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard (Mal), and Cillian Murphy (Fischer) all appear in his Dark Knight trilogy for example. None of these actors give the best performance of their career, but all are proven actors and give this film the performances it deserves. Dicaprio and Cotillard give the strongest performances as Cobb and Mal, and Gordon-Levitt is impressive as Arthur, but none of these actors are really challenged in this movie as they are overshadowed by the intricacy of the story. A perfect example of this is Ellen Page who normally plays very challenging roles (An American Crime, Juno, Hard Candy, etc.) but here gives a rather straightforward performance as Ariadne. Inception is a rare exception where great acting isn’t necessary for an exceptional film.

Cinematography:

There are several awe-inspiring visual scenes in this film which showcase Nolan’s skill as a director. The first of these scenes is when Leo is dunked in slow-motion into a bathtub while enormous tidal waves come crashing through the sides of the building. Nolan shows us first one scene and then the other, back and forth, creating a transition for Cobb from one dream to the next while also building tension for the audience as first we first feel concern that he will drown in Saito’s palace and then that he will drown in the tub. These feelings of anxiety are instantaneous, not drawn out like most action scenes, which make them more effective as there’s no time for the audience to become bored or lose interest in the character’s peril. Nolan also uses this back and forth technique to show what’s going on inside Cobb’s mind; we see a scene of what is happening in real time, followed by a clip of Cobb’s children, then back to real time, then an image of Mal, then back to real time. This is a simple technique and used quite often by directors but what makes it special in this movie is the amount that it is used and the role it has in helping the audience figure out what happened to Cobb. It’s not just his thoughts we are seeing but his memories and these help us to piece together the narrative of what happened to him. This technique also works as part of the story’s framework by providing a space for Mal to exist in addition to Cobb’s dreams.

Another example of the beautiful cinematography in this film is when Cobb and Ariadne meet on a Paris street corner and we see a book display and fruit stands begin to explode, then the glass from the nearby buildings, then the buildings themselves and then even the ground erupts all forming a slow-motion tornado of destruction around Cobb and Ariadne who remain perfectly still. When Ariadne asks about “what happens when you mess with the physics of it all” and turns a street upside down forming a cube is a great visual to help the audience grasp the ability of an architect to mess with dreams, just as the Penrose steps example is a clever way for Nolan to explain how dreams can be built as paradoxical mazes. Many of the scenes in this film are simply spectacular to behold because of their overwhelming amount of detail and magnitude: the buildings shown in limbo, the first maze Ariadne designs, Saito’s palace, the zero-gravity scene in the hotel, etc. These scenes exemplify the level of complexity that Nolan achieves both visually and through his writing.

Story

There are too many unique elements to dreaming and inception in this story to cover them all, but a list of some of them would include: that five minutes in the real world gives an hour in the dream, the concept of architects who design dreams as mazes, that there are projections of the subconscious who can turn on those who do not belong in the dream, totems, that dreamers use bank vaults as places to hide secure information, the concept of a forger as someone who imitates real people within a dream rather than the conventional definition, etc. Because Inception has so many of these original ideas, all of which are new to the audience, much of the movie must be dedicated to explaining these concepts to the audience. How these ideas are explained and how much time is given to their explanation is critical to the film’s success because there is a balance that must be met between providing enough information that the audience can understand what’s going on but not so much that the audience is overwhelmed and loses interest in the story. Nolan’s execution of this balance is flawless. By using multiple characters to teach the audience (Cobb, Arthur, and Eames) and dividing new concepts up between scenes, Nolan keeps his ideas fresh and manageable for the audience.

“An idea is like a virus: resilient, highly contagious. The smallest seed of an idea can grow. It can grow to define or destroy you.” This is how Cobb characterizes an idea and is clearly the definition at work in the film. The audience learns about the process of inception very gradually over the course of the film. We are initially told that it is a means of planting an idea into a dreamer’s head and, if successful, making them believe it is their own. Then Eames makes it clear to us that this process is very difficult to master because it requires the most basic stage of the idea in order for it to work. Lastly a much darker piece of inception is introduced: that the idea can destroy the one who receives it. Nolan intentionally leaves out this information until the final confrontation between Cobb and Mal, as it is the key to understanding what happened to Mal and the reason for Cobb’s guilt. Part of the Nolan’s genius in this film is the way he presents the story of the inception of Fischer and the bargain with Saito to the audience as if it were the main story of the film when really he is distracting us from the real story which is Cobb’s relationship with Mal.

A dream within a dream and the concept of inception are the defining characteristics of Inception for most viewers, but the real heart of the film is the backstory of Cobb and Mal. Throughout the film we are aware that their relationship is significant since Mal works as a multifaceted bridge between the real world, the dream world, and Cobb’s memories both for Cobb and for the audience. She is the real antagonist of the film as her character is constantly at work to stop Cobb from succeeding. We see her interference in the dream world from the very beginning of the film where she tells Saito about him and attempts to torture Arthur. She is Cobb’s cause of pain in the real world (the reason he cannot go home to his children) and she also haunts his memories’ Ariadne discovers Cobb keeps certain memories of her locked away off an elevator in his mind (“These are memories I have to make right” he tells Ariadne.) Part of the genius of this story is that at first the audience is meant to believe that Mal and Cobb’s relationship is a vehicle for explaining Cobb’s character and the reason he must perform inception on Fischer in order to go home. But towards the end of the film when Cobb enters Limbo and reveals that he performed inception on Mal which led to her suicide, we begin to realize that it’s the other way around; the Inception of Fischer is the vehicle to explain what Cobb did to Mal and the reason for his guilt. Mal is the basis for the film’s theme of questioning the reality we live in and the source of doubt for Cobb and for the audience as to whether Cobb lives in the real world or whether he is still dreaming while his children keep him grounded in the real world.

As dark and serious as the film’s story is, there are also brief moments of humor worked into the story. “You musn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling” Eames tells Arthur while lifting a grenade launcher to fire at a troublesome projection. The audience can enjoy this moment of levity and still feel the tension of hoping they escape without being shot. This happens several times over the course of the film, usually right before moments of extreme tension, which add to the audience’s entertainment without changing the feel of scene. The successful infusion of humor into such a serious film shows just how layered this film really is.

Music:

Hans Zimmer is famous for his powerful soundtracks and this one just might be the highlight of his career. Zimmer delivers a raw musical score that seems to fill the viewer with the emotion of his music and places them within the scene. The power of Inception’s score creates a balance with the otherwise overwhelming visuals of the film’s cinematography. The man who gave us the Dark Knight, Lion King, and Pirates of the Caribbean’s scores has outdone himself with Inception.

Conclusion:

Grade: WRAP: 100%

A film to be watched again and again, Inception is a thought-provoking, mind-bending film for the ages. Its complexity is not limited to its story, but extends to its cinematography, and its score. This film takes special effects, which are sometimes the downfall of a film, and uses it as a strength to build on an already creative script. In today’s age of movies where three sequels to Avatar are being made and Hollywood is often criticized for its lack of imagination, Inception is the creativity we’ve all been searching for.