Inception follows the slightly damaged and dwindling Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his straight-laced partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), as Secret Agents who specialize in using a very secret technology- the ability to get into someone's head... literally. This process can only be accomplished while the victim (or client?) is fast asleep and dreaming, and Cobb is the best of the best when it comes to this. Or, he was, until a mysterious woman, Mal (Marion Cotillard), started following him in this process and deliberately sabotaging him. And if that person's sleep is for any reason disrupted, the dream- and the game- is over. Cobb and Arthur are assigned by Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe) to a very illegal game of espionage on his target Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). They must accomplish a task which only Cobb knows is possible, and everyone else doubts: Inception- to place an original idea in the head of another, in order to make them believe they thought of it. Saito guarantees that if they complete this task, he can legally get Cobb back into the USA- where he is banned- and into the arms of the children he hasn't seen in years. They have to go in deepy, dreams within dreams to do so, and Cobb knows they cannot do it on their own. They gather members for their dream team over time, and the youngest of them, still in college, Ariadne (Ellen Page), develops a connection with Cobb- not one of romance as in typical Hollywood glam, but one of curiousity and mind. She uncovers that Mal is actually Cobb's deceased wife, which is the stepping stone sending her on a mission of discovery about realities and dreams, truth and what we merely percieve as truth, as Cobb struggles to relieve himself of his past, and deposit a true original thought into Robert Fischer's brain.
This film was conceived and written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who proudly developed the recent films, The Dark Knight, Memento, and Batman Begins. When he first thought of the concept, ten years ago, he pictured Inception as a horror film. It stands now as an Action/Mystery/Sci-Fi, leaving lingering questions in the minds of its viewers. He remarks that he was influenced by the era that produced The Matrix, Dark City, and The Thirteenth Floor, as well as an Anime film called Paprika. He first pitched this idea back in 2001, but then decided that he wasn't up to par as far as creating big-scaled pieces went, and he then made his marks on the Batman movies. After directing The Dark Knight, he decided it was time, and he spent six months writing the feature-length script. His outline had been 80 pages long. Leonardo DiCaprio was the first actor cast into the film, and Nolan had always wanted to work with him, but never had a role designed that DiCaprio would take. DiCaprio admits that the concept really intrigued him, but that you did have to have Nolan there to be able to actually hear him explain some of the things he'd been working on over the ten year period.
The writing is exceptional in this piece. Not a single detail is left unexplained (unless by intention) or unresolved (unless by intention). The ten years he spent fine-tuning this are clear even on the first watch, when the common viewer picks up only about 1/4 of the detail. It's also remarkably visual and graphic. Because much of the film takes place in dreams, the physical worlds they travel in are incredibly vivid and realistic, and we go from a snowy mountain top to a cafe in Paris, to a van hurdling 100 feet down, into the water. The ground rises to become the sky, objects fly, gravity disappears, and all of it is wrapped up inside fantastic cinematography that shows you exactly what you need to see. The subplots are complex, but don't take away from the A Story at all. Every single part is played as it should have been. Personally, I think it's great when a writer has a chance to direct his own piece, so that his concept can be directly communicated during shooting- as there's only so much you can put in a script.
Hans Zimmer did the music for this movie, and if you know me at all, you know he's my favorite composer. From his work on The Lion King to The Ring to Thelma and Louise to The Dark Knight, this guy has a range. I will say that this music reminds me a lot of the music from The Dark Knight, but slightly more electronic, in a way. It's still wonderfully done, and one of the other things nominated for an Oscar, this year.
Everyone needs to see this movie. And I don't want to hear any more crap about how it's the same damn movie as Shutter Island. There are DEFINITELY things about them that are similar: They both star Leonardo DiCaprio. They both have ambiguous endings. They're both long. They both have deceased wives in the protagonists' thoughts. They're both mysterious. That is where it abruptly ends. Seeing one of these movies is a fundamentally different experience from seeing the other. By the way, you need to watch Shutter Island, too because it's off-the-wall awesome. They may have things in common, and are usually compared because they came out very closely to one another, but they are in no way the same movie, and I am so friggen sick of hearing stupid people say that they are. They're not. This is still currently my hope for the Oscar, Best Picture of 2010, and I seriously do encourage everyone to see it- if for NO other reason, it took ten YEARS to be written, and it was written by a man who's direction has already been critically acclaimed as amazing. It's probably pretty epic.
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