In the fall of 2000, my friends and I drove to an indie theatre in Pasadena for the opening of a film that sounded cool but was under the radar. Something about a guy trying to find a killer and the story going backwards. The movie of course was Memento and after we saw it, our minds were so blown we had a hard time finding our way back to campus. This low budget movie directed by Christopher Nolan had a genius script that was perfectly translated to the screen, and was one of the best movies of the decade. Nolan went on to direct Insomnia, The Prestige and Batman Begins, all pretty good. And then he made The Dark Knight which, a lot of guys will tell you, is one of the best movies ever.And so it was with eager anticipation that I awaited Nolan's newest movie, Inception. But oh, the disappointment. Well, not a total failure. Let me explain.
Leonardo diCaprio plays Cobb, an "extractor" who can enter your dreams and steal ideas from your subconsciousness. He is hired by a powerful executive to create an idea in a competitor's subconsciousness for the purposes of sabotage. All of this is haphazardly explained in the film's opening. For the next hour or so there is a lot of talk and planning for this reverse heist, and it kind of drags. We meet Cobb's team, which includes Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, all very skilled in their bizarre tasks. Their competence is key, because it turns out that stealing ideas is way easier than creating them, something we all learned early on in grade school.
I'll spare you all the details, believe me there are a ton. In fact you could almost hear the gears wrenching inside the minds of the Fresno audience, trying to follow along. I chuckled when the lady next to me asked, profoundly, "Wait, what is real?" In fact, the plot is relatively straightforward, but the movie gets very bogged down in Cobb's psyche, flashing between his past reality, the dreams he shared with his wife, his present reality and his present dreams.
The visual effects during the dream scenes are where the film triumphs. Escher staircases, zero gravity fights, Paris collapsing in on itself, indoor waterfalls, all incredible. The sets and costumes are very well crafted. Plus this movie is set in at least six different countries and four continents. The premise and ideas themselves are all interesting too.
But overall this movie is very chaotic, and it's almost too much work to enjoy thoroughly. Memento and The Dark Knight were so good I bought the DVDs and can watch them over and over. Will I throw down more cash to watch Inception again? Dream on!
