This Is Not a Dream: Or is it????

(Editor’s Note: This blog post is technically littered with “spoilers.” But we ask you, can they really be spoilers if the writer has no idea what he is talking about?)
As the director of DARK KNIGHT, Christopher Nolan has a free pass from me for the next twenty movies he makes. Fortunately for me, though, Nolan isn’t resting on his laurels and comes out swinging with INCEPTION.
INCEPTION is a combination heist film and sci-fi mind bender. It feels like a melting pot for OCEAN’S ELEVEN, THE MATRIX and MEMENTO. We’ll break it down in that order…
Ok, Leo Dicaprio is no George Clooney in terms of charisma, but he can assemble a team and he does look good in a suit. INCEPTION is not nearly as much fun as the gang of eleven, who never matched the same dire consequences of our dream thieves. Those cats were having fun in Las Vegas, while our protagonist can’t even enter the country legally.
The similarities revolve around the layered plan and the posse atmosphere. The former is too complicated for my brain to replicate, as it dives deep into sub-sub-subconscious territory in a squirrely way that alluded me even after the credits had begun rolling. As for the posse atmosphere, INCEPTION does a good job assembling a gang we can root for.
In the Andy Garcia, circa OCEAN’S THIRTEEN, role, we have Samurai Ken. He has the possible savior for Leo, although he offers salvation at a price, which is one last big job. He’s along for the ride, although his journey is abridged early on by a possibly life threatening gun-shot wound.
Bringing the funny is Tom Hardy, as a forger and all around odd job guy who is a foil to Leo’s dark personality. I’m not sure which OCEAN’s character he represents, but he definitely embodies the light hearted fun that Cheadle, Damon and Pitt brought to that team. For my money I think this guy saves the movie. He offers a contrasting tone that if absent would have generated a different movie, which would have suffered from taking itself too seriously.
The disappointing role is given to Ellen Page. As the Brad Pitt-esque confidant and filling the vagina requirement carried by Julia Roberts in the ELEVEN, Page falls flat. I think her problem is the product of a bad role. Nolan has never done a good job with female characters, except for Carrie Anne Moss in Memento, with the different Rachels in the Batman movies representing his most dramatic failures (annoying and useless). Juno doesn’t fail to live up to the part, but it does feel like we’re relying too heavily on a girl that hasn’t mastered contraception.
I felt let down by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s role. While my man crush on him is probably unhealthy, it is not without merit. Levitt is a scene stealer and a versatile actor, which is why it wasn’t enough to merely have him playing the stiff #2 to Leo’s #1. He ends up carrying off the role with such ease, that even his climactic fight scene in a hotel that defies gravity doesn’t pack that much of a punch.
It was nice, though, to see him continue his evolution as an actor with another step outside his original comfort zone.
Our villain isn’t really a villain, which is kind of disappointing because in this aspect the movie is more like THE STING and my analogy is slightly strained. Regardless, it appears that Nolan has an infatuation with Cillian Murphy, who has made the jump Gotham City to Dream World, USA. Murphy is fine as the confused heir to a fortune that our heroes want manipulate. He’s actually slightly more than good, as he adapts radically shifting characters through his consciousnesses.
Let’s get to the MATRIX, which exists in terms of the film’s trippiness and never quit villain. The trippineess is easy to explain: The movie is about people who invade your consciousness and steal your dreams. But are those dreams real or is your life real? Who is to say what is real? Maybe there are degrees of realities? This movie isn’t as complicated as the MATRIX, but it still offers a wild ride on par with anything the Grisswalds ever did.
As far as the villain part executed to perfection by Hugo Weaving as Mr. Smith, we now get the evil styling of Marion Cotillard as Mal. She is Leo’s dead wife, who plagues his dreams and therefore represents an unwieldy threat to the team’s mission. She attacks with the same relentless fervor of Mr. Smith, but with ten times the sexiness and two times the creepiness.
Finally, the MEMENTO elements present themselves in the creative story telling devices and complicated story, which is ultimately the product of a troubled past.
I wouldn’t say I loved this movie, since it relied too heavily on the gimmicks of the world it created. “Oh look, we can defy physics!” Yeah, it was cool, but the troubled history of Leo’s character had some of the same failings of his work in SHUTTER ISLAND. I just didn’t care and it dragged on way too much.
Additionally, there wasn’t nearly enough Michael Caine in the movie for me.
I feel like everyone could have used a butler, which is why he should have been in every scene.
I don’t think it is a detriment to the movie that I didn’t grasp everything even in the end. INCEPTION didn’t require a ton of brain power, which I liked, but I felt the lack of clear resolution (and I’m not talking about the spinning top) is a failing of the movie. It is ok if there are still questions, but there needs to be a framework for the viewer to reason some of them out. The foundation I was left with was shaky and unreliable.
On the whole I could have used more OCEAN’s ELEVEN and less of the conflicted past. The movie is at its best when all the gears of the film are turning, like when the van is crashing off the bridge and Levitt is moving along the ceiling. Unfortunately these scenes are outweighed by dragging scenes with Marion and Leo, which ended up detracting from an intense finale that would have been more powerful if I wasn’t already tired of the dynamic.
This movie definitely warrants seeing, unless you’re my mom’s dad, who demanded and received a refund for the movie. It may not require immediate repeat viewing, but I could see myself going back to the well in ten or 20 years.
Finally, I don’t think this movie is as good as some have ranted and I also don’t think it is as bad as my grandfather thought it was. For me it exists in a happy medium of comparative goodness. But then again, maybe I just think that because I’m dreaming and this movie is a product of my limited subconsciouness.