Inception: movie review
Writer-director Christopher Nolan鈥檚 鈥�Inception鈥� is about an espionage expert, Leonardo DiCaprio鈥檚 Dom Cobb, who has a highly specialized way of stealing corporate secrets: He extracts them from within the dreams of his targets.
Depending on your taste for narrative logic, Nolan鈥檚 penchant for delineating dream states carries either a built-in advantage or a huge liability. If you don鈥檛 mind being tossed about in a state of high confusion for 2-1/2 hours, as dreams enfold within dreams and subconscious states are poised in an infinite limbo, then this is your dream movie.
I found myself more inclined to sympathize with Cobb鈥檚 notion that, in limbo states, hours can turn into years. After one too many dreams-within-dreams-within-dreams, I was feeling in limbo myself.
Which is not to say that 鈥淚nception鈥� isn鈥檛 a compelling thrill ride. It鈥檚 just not much of a fun ride. Nolan, best known for his 鈥淏atman鈥� movies and the time-shifty 鈥�Memento,鈥� is very big on noir. For him, black is beautiful 鈥� i.e., horrible. When Cobb starts hunting dream worlds, he never encounters anything transcendent inside anybody鈥檚 noggin. The darkness of this movie, as was also the case with Nolan鈥檚 鈥淒ark Knight,鈥� is magisterially oppressive.
Cobb鈥檚 situation, despite its newfangled presentation, is fairly conventional, even sappy. Once upon a time he became a fugitive from America for supposedly causing the death of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard, who, coming after Michael Mann鈥檚 鈥�Public Enemies,鈥� is Hollywood鈥檚 designated noir vamp). Mal keeps invading his dreams, or the dreams he concocts within other鈥檚 dreams-within-dreams, or their dreams within his dreams, or 鈥� oh, forget it. Anyway, she鈥檚 up to no good, even though, technically, she鈥檚 dead, or in limbo, or something.
The point is, man-with-a-past Cobb is still in love with her. She is, literally, the woman of his dreams. His enraptured state is scaled big, Wagnerian big, but neither he nor Mal can quite fill out the ardor. That鈥檚 because Nolan, ultimately, is a head guy and not a heart guy. He鈥檚 all about architecture. Everything in this movie issues from the heavy doominess of its look.
Things lighten up ever so slightly when Cobb, hired by a Japanese tycoon (Ken Watanabe) to do some heavy-duty extraction 鈥� excuse me, inception 鈥� on a corporate heir (Cillian Murphy), assembles his A-Team of fellow dream foragers, including Ellen Page鈥檚 Ariadne, master forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and sidekick-researcher Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
But even here, Cobb too often spoils the party by offering up such deep-think pronouncements as 鈥渨e only use a fraction of our brain鈥檚 true potential.鈥� I cite this line, which is typical 鈥� not to mention unoriginal and probably untrue 鈥� because many people are going to be conned into thinking 鈥淚nception鈥� is some sort of high-I.Q. whirligig just because it鈥檚 festooned with M枚bius strips and M.C. Escher stairs and everybody in it seems to understand what鈥檚 going on even if you don鈥檛. (The biggest, the only, laugh line at my screening came at a particularly confusing time when Ariadne suddenly asks, 鈥淲hose subconscious did we just go into?鈥�)
For movie buffs, the only real fun to be had at 鈥淚nception鈥� could be toting up the lifts from other movies, including Cocteau鈥檚 鈥淏lood of a Poet鈥� and 鈥淭he Matrix鈥� series and just about anything by Kubrick. (One movie not referenced is Joseph Ruben鈥檚 terrific 鈥淒reamscape,鈥� from 1984, which had a lot more fun with some of the same concepts.) Nolan, like Cobb, is an assiduous extractor, and he knows how to wow audiences. But scaling big and thinking big are not the same thing. And dark, just because it鈥檚 dark, isn鈥檛 more artistic than light.
It鈥檚 artier, though. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.)
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