Inception takes place in a world where entering someone else's dreams is a somewhat common occurrence, using technology developed by the military for training purposes. Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) is one of the best at what he does - entering dreams for the purpose of extracting sensitive information. He, along with his team of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) the researcher, Ariadne (Ellen Page) the dreamworld architect, Eames (Tom Hardy) the forger, Yusef (Dileep Rao) the chemist are about to embark on an even more difficult mission - that of inception, or the planting of an idea is someone's mind. Dom is desperately trying to make it back home, but is unable to because of false criminal charges. He hopes that his powerful new client Saito (Ken Watanabe) can deliver on his promise to make this obstacle disappear should Dom and his team complete the nearly impossible. The target is Robert (Cillian Murphy), heir to his father's (Pete Postlethwaite) empire that Saito wants broken up. Marion Cotillard also appears as Dom's deceased wife whose memory haunts haunts him, and Michael Caine makes an appearance as her father.
Confused yet? You're not alone, though Nolan has a unique talent for creating complex, intricate, and confusing stories that can be understood in a straightforward manner as long as you pay attention, as he did in Memento and The Prestige. Inception has the multi-level complexity of Primer, but with one important difference. Normal people can understand it. Inception hits that near perfect balance of acting, story telling, action, and visual candy. Free to work in a Matrix-like dreamworld, Nolan shows considerable restraint, keeping things relatively realistic despite the fantastic nature of the story. The action is tense and almost non-stop, whether it is physical fire fights, or mental anguish. DiCaprio gives a strong performance as does Gordon-Levitt. I can only hope we see him again soon as Nolan's Riddler.
It's hard to discuss more of why this movie works without giving away key elements, but trust me, it does. In lesser hands, something like this could have caved in on itself, but Nolan and his cast deliver. The ending is what most people will be talking about as Nolan has constructed this movie in such a way that there are many possible interpretations, including that the entire movie is actually a dream. For those who have seen it, my opinion is that the ending is as straightforward as you hope and that the final wavering doubt at the end was planted there by Nolan as a nod to his own creation of inception, planting that seed of doubt in the viewer's mind until it grows, making you question what you thought you knew was real, even though it is.
See this movie. Please.
***** (5/5 stars)
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