Review: INCEPTION

After directing The Dark Knight, there was always going to be huge pressure on Christopher Nolan to 'produce the goods' on his next movie, but has he delivered?

There was so much hype surrounding Inception, I was sure it was going to disappoint. All too often films fail to live up to expectations...The Last Airbender anyone? However, early word on this film was almost universally positive with just a few saying it was over contrived and complicated, leaving the audience confused long before the credits rolled.

I'm pleased to report that Inception is an incredible film. An original, mind bending, thrilling slice of movie entertainment that manages to capture and hold your attention for every second of its 148 minute running time. Don't get me wrong, you do have to concentrate throughout and there will be times when you find yourself trying to figure out exactly what's going on, but for me that's all part of the enjoyment. As much as I love 'popcorn' movies, every now and again I like to be challenged and surprised. Inception does this and much much more.

The film is set in the not-too-distant future where Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) heads up a specialist team that use advanced technology to enter people's dreams and extract their secrets. However, instead of extracting, they are hired by Saito (Ken Watanabe) to perform an 'inception', the almost impossible task of planting an idea into someone's subconscious. A job made all the more difficult by the appearance of Cobb's wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), who seems intent of sabotaging the whole plan.

Leonardo Di Caprio is on top form, proving that he could well be the best actor of his generation. His work here even tops his fantastic performance in Shutter Island earlier this year, which will give you some idea of just how good he is in this movie. He is complimented throughout by the superb supporting cast, including the always brilliant Tom Hardy, who is clearly relishing his role providing the welcome moments of light relief during some of the more intense scenes. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays reliable side kick Arthur, and has some of the best action sequences, including a stunning corridor fight (pictured below). It's great to see him in a big mainstream movie, as up until now he's been cutting his acting chops on smaller, low budget films like 500 Days of Summer. The same can be said for Juno's Ellen Page (not including her turn in X-Men 3), who plays Ariadne, the newest member of the team who soon realises that things aren't quite what they seem with Cobb (Di Caprio). She's also the character that helps us understand what's actually happening, so pay particular attention whenever someone's explaining something to her about the inception process!

Somewhat surprisingly for a $200m summer blockbuster, the CGI and special effects are used to enhance the story, rather than suffocate it, and this is some of the best movie magic you're likely to see. It's so well integrated into the action, that you'll sometimes forget what you're watching should be impossible.

So, did I leave the screening confused? The truth is I didn't. On my newly created (just for this review) movie scale of confusion, 1 being Bambi and 10 being Guy Ritchie's Revolver, then Inception is probably a 7. I'm not going into detail, as I don't want to ruin the film for those people that haven't seen it yet, but as long as you're paying close attention, you shouldn't end up confused.



The bottom line is that Christopher Nolan is a genius. Let's not forget, he didn't just direct Inception, he wrote it as well. Considering how complex and detailed this film is, it's amazing he managed to edit it into a coherent movie at all, let alone produce (in my humble opinion) the best film of 2010 and arguably the best film of the last ten years. He apparently first pitched it to Warner Bros a decade ago, but with a much smaller budget. To be honest it's hard to conceive how this could have been 'done on the cheap', but I guess if anyone could have done it, it would have been Nolan.

Inception is film making at its very best and I loved it.


Michael's Movie Mark   10/10