Le Critique: Movie Review: Inception (2010)

Oh boy, not another Inception review. Lol! Well, by now the whole world (except probably Ms C) has seen the movie. I won’t really even bother to give a spoiler alert. Just my two cents as usual.

We follow Dom Cobb (Leo DiCaprio), a professional extractor of information, as he enters the depths of one’s subconscious, entering their dreams in a world created for them by a dream architect, which now has become my dream job (hehehe dream job, get it?). Anyway. So that’s what he does. It is a dangerous job to mess with the mind, and they use a “totem” to know which world is reality and which is a dream, because apparently, you’ll get confused. Because of this job and skill, he was convicted the crime of killing his own wife, which becomes the reason he was exiled out of the US (I didn’t know that such was the punishment for that crime). He is approached by a client Saito (Ken Watanabe) to instead of extracting information, he wants to plant an idea into the mind of his dying business rival’s son, Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy). Saito wants Robert to somehow get the idea of breaking up his father’s empire so that it won’t grow too big to eat up Saito’s business. To do that, Saito asks Dom to “assemble his team” for an… (drumroll please)… Inception. In return, Saito will make just one phone call to allow Dom to come home.

The movie plays with two sensitive subjects. There’s that troubled father-and-son relationship that Robert has with his mogul father. Also, incidentally, Dom has been troubled by his dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), who, because she of course lies in his memory, pops up in the dreams once in a while – well, more often than not. So, for the job, Dom recruits an architecture student, Ariadne (Ellen Page), a pro in changing his appearance, Eames (Tom Hardy), and a chemist who has powerful drugs to make people stay asleep, Yusuf (Dileep Rao), working with of course the sudden cutie sidekick, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Oh, and Saito wanted to be there too. They go on with the mission, entering a dream within a dream within a dream of different dreamers during 10-hour flight from Tokyo to LA, with some challenges along the way as apparently Robert is “trained” with the extraction process that he has an army in his dreams set out to bring forth chaos just so that a possible extractor is stressed and pressured when having to get some information.

And now my critique.

This army of well-suited bodyguards with machine guns are really the only villains in the story. You can say Mal is a villain too because she troubles Dom, but there is no real antagonist. Having said that, the film is still a thriller that it said it is, and that made the film just wonderful to watch because I was clutching Chef’s hand the whole time because of the mystery – except of the very repetitive slow-mo’d images that started to look ridiculous. The concept was of course interesting, and the flaws of the concept of inception are negligible. There was of course a lot of explanation. Come on, you’re pretty much going into Christopher Nolan’s mind of complete make-belief. Of course it has to be explained. He directs it well, again except of the very repetitive slow-mo’d images that started to look ridiculous, even if there are definitely parts of the concept that we’ve seen from other films before. The fact that we haven’t seen a somewhat original sci-fi like this in a long time is why the movie is a success that it is. However, I did not lose sleep over it. I did not have to wonder if I were within a dream when I woke up. Which is weird because a lot of people said that. Nope. It wasn’t that effective as The Matrix was. At least not to me.

What made the film enjoyable for me is that despite the darkness of the film, it’s actually pretty to look at. And no, I’m not just talking about the slew of pretty boys and their fabulous shoes. Yes, man, their shoes were fabulous! And hello Joseph Gordon-Levitt with that flawless skin. Cillian Murphy was of course pretty in a mannequin kind of way. Even Tom Hardy and Ken Watanabe. Ok fine, Ellen Page was pretty too, nice lips actually. Leo is Leo. Even if he wrinkles his face, he is forever the heartthrob. Anyway, with Tokyo and Paris, bullet trains and first class cabins, even the dreams that Ariadne had build – nice modern buildings, a very cool bar, and the snowy military base with all their white walkie talkies, machine guns and grenades. Definitely my kind of weapons to match my old white iPhone.

Everyone’s acting was actually good. Definitely no one fell short in that part. Leo has mastered the troubled character. He is just always great in it. But to be honest I think I’m ready for different kinds of roles. That’s not to say that I didn’t like him for this movie. It was as if this film was made for him because of all the roles he’s already played since Romeo and Juliet. I’m hoping to see him as a villain soon. Marion Cotillard was scary!! Good scary! J G-L was the shocker to me. From what I remember of teeny-bopper roles he had, this was amazing. Apparently he was Cobra Commander. I took a movie-watching hiatus in 2009, which seems to be the year he resurrected from his Columbia University hiatus. So, Netflix then. Oh, and it was a delight to see Michael Caine. Always a pleasure to watch him, however small the role is.

Just for the fun of it, here’s my  salt and pepper shaker totem.