Film Review: Inception
Did Chris Nolan save 2010?
It's impossible to talk about this film without putting it into it context. I can list on one hand the movies released this year that have managed to rise above acceptable or mediocre (Kick Ass, How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story 3 & Splice, if you are interested), and with half of the year gone, that's just depressing. Whether Nolan wanted it or not, Inception was released at the midpoint of one of the most disappointing movie years in recent memory, and being Nolan’s followup to The Dark Knight (my pick for best movie of 2008) the fate of the entire movie world rested on this film’s shoulders. So did Inception live up to this responsibility, or is it about time to write this year off?
I think for the most part, we can breathe a sigh of relief. Inception is brilliantly imaginative, and more importantly, easily watchable and enjoyable. Nolan has proven that not only is he completely comfortable handling epic scale and edge of your seat excitement, something he showed us in The Dark Knight, he is more than capable of taking a ridiculously complex sci-fi subject, and present it in a way that can be understood in one screening. He also managed to do this without compromising the complexity of the film's ideas. Movies like Primer sacrifice clarity for added complexity, yet somehow Nolan managed to pull off both, and that alone makes Inception a worthy savior of our abysmal Summer.
So while yes, I do think Inception is a breath of fresh air, I think this is merely a great movie, not a timeless movie like The Dark Knight or even obvious comparison films like The Matrix. Inception is a near perfect culmination of Nolan’s brilliant storytelling prowess, but unlike Nolan’s other films, it is somewhat lacking in character. Leonard from Memento, the Joker from The Dark Knight, and even Hugh Jackman & Christian Bale in The Prestige all show that Nolan is capable of developing deeply intriguing, complexly motivated characters. Leonardo DiCaprio is the obvious attempt to give Inception some bit of weighty character development, but his one-note portrayal has less gravity than some of the film's more spectacular effects sequences (If you are more than vaguely reminded of Shutter Island Leo, you're not alone). This is compounded by a cast of supporting characters who do little more than spout exposition and provide able bodies to progress the story’s devices. I think Inception proves it’s acceptable to focus on plot over player, but it's disappointing when we know Nolan is capable of pulling off both.
The technical construction of the film, its effects, cinematography, and score are all archetypically Nolan, and the film might as well have taken place in Gotham City as in...wherever it took place-opolis. I could have done with a little less Zimmer-y of a score, but it serves its purpose aptly once the film gets down to the action. The effect sequences are more sparsely distributed than I would have hoped, but they are used to complement the film’s ideas in extraordinarily beautiful and novel and ways. While some might criticize Nolan's choice to so firmly ground his dreamworlds in reality, their vague familiarity play well into the film's plot and Cartesian philosophical quandaries.
In the end, to bring this review full circle, it’s really the ideas and concepts of this film combined with Nolan’s ability to present them in a way that is broadly approachable that makes Inception such an entertaining film. Whether you are fan of the complexity of dreams or just a fan of edge of your seat suspense, I can easily say this is the best thing to come out this Summer. And while it can’t undo the travesty of these past seven months, it does plant the idea in our head that there may be hope for 2010 after all.
If you liked this film, I recommend:
