Info
The opinions, comments and viewpoints expressed in articles are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the webmaster.
All press articles are still under copyright from the original source and provided for entertainment purposes and research only. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
|
by Peter Canavese, published on July 18, 2010 - 02:56 AM The first image in Christopher Nolan's Inception is of waves. They are, in a manner of speaking, brain waves, for the movie begins in the subconscious mind. Because Inception is written and directed by Nolan (contributions he has made to films like Memento and The Dark Knight), it goes without saying that it's extremely well thought out. Nolan likes himself a puzzle or, in this case, a maze: the labyrinth of brain tissue that is the architecture of our minds. So, yes, Inception is literally heady fare, the story of a crack team of subconscious infiltrators trained to create vulnerable dreamscapes (the job of an "architect"), plunge into them together via "shared dreaming," and steal ideas ("extraction"). Idea theft is hard enough, but much harder than extraction is "inception": the planting of an idea in such a way as to make the subject believe it is his or her own (we're put in the compromised position of rooting for purveyors of two of the biggest modern bugaboos: these anti-heroes are violators of privacy and identity thieves). When presented with the prospect of an inception mission, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's extractor Arthur warns, "True inspiration's impossible to fake," but team leader Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) won't be dissuaded. The high-risk job is his opportunity to rejoin his children, from whom he has been separated following a tragic incident. Cobb remains haunted by a memory involving the mother of his children (Marion Cotillard), who's always on his mind. What's worse: the intensity of the memory owes to strong feelings of guilt and regret. As Cobb asks and answers, "What is the most resilient parasite? An idea." The simplest way to sum up the greatness of Inception is to identify it as a new classic of science-fiction cinema (and, for that matter, the heist genre). This conclusion would seem hard to dispute, given Nolan's inventiveness and filmmaking skill in telling a story that demonstrates Dickian fascinations with untrustworthy reality, invasive technology, and betrayal that can be internal as well as external. By also functioning as an action thriller, Inception fulfills Nolan's ongoing promise to craft works that are exciting as movies and exciting as films, layered with a Hitchcockian self-reflexivity about the dream escapism of movies themselves (Nolan has copped to Blade Runner, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Topkapi being among his favorite movies, and their echoes are felt here). Furthermore, Inception makes a bold attempt at tragic psychodrama, not unlike DiCaprio's recent teaming with Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island. The ingenious plot boasts nearly airtight internal logic, especially important when the film dares to climax with a sequence unfolding on four levels of subconsciousness at once. To call Inception ambitious is a no-brainer; Nolan has never dreamed so big, and on the heels of The Dark Knight, the final-cut filmmaker has enough clout and enough of Warner Brothers' dollars to realize his vision with his loyal crew intact (MVP: cinematographer Wally Pfister) and a top-notch ensemble that includes Ellen Page (a brilliant extractor), Ken Watanabe (as the client), Cillian Murphy (as the mark), Tom Hardy (who crucially lends a bit of slinky humor to the team effort), Tom Berenger, Lukas Haas, Pete Postlethwaite, Dileep Rao and, fleetingly, Michael Caine. The nearly wall-to-wall scoring contributes to the thick broodiness of the picture; if it weren't for the totemic use of Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien," Hans Zimmer would never get a break. France, Morocco, Japan, Canada, the UK and the US provide sites for sore eyes, and the "how'd they do that?" effects work supervised by Chris Corbould and Paul Franklin is strictly mind-blowing movie magic. Nolan busts in the doors of perception, breaks the glass of its windows and mind-warps the laws of physics. Source: grouchoreviews.com |
Printerfriendly version · Read 20 times
Powered by Silver News 2.0.4
Last Update: 09/02/2010
© 2006-2010 Dominik Keppner
© 2006-2010 Dominik Keppner
