Movie goers across the country will be leaving theaters amazed and confused after watching the dream warfare thriller “Inception,” the latest masterpiece from acclaimed director Christopher Nolan.
With his latest futuristic movie, Nolan keeps up the momentum he started in 2008 with “The Dark Knight.”
“Inception” takes place in a world where our most prized possessions are up for grabs to highly skilled criminals. These prized possessions have no monetary value; instead they are our thoughts, our deepest and darkest secrets we would never want anyone to know.
These thoughts and secrets are infiltrated while the victims are in a sleeping state and are experiencing a dream. It is in the dream where extraction takes place and thoughts, ideas and other experiences are up for grabs for these futuristic criminals. Mental piracy is the crime, and your subconscious is never safe.
Leonardo DiCaprio gives a truly amazing performance as Dom Cobb, the best of these mind thieves, but is also supported by other great performances from his cast mates, including Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
While doing an important job for a company, Cobb runs into problems trying to steal certain thoughts and fails his mission, making him run to hide from the people he tried to steal from, as well as the police. Then fate intervenes, and one last chance to get a normal life back is offered to Cobb by the subject of his last dream-hijacking.
The idea is opposite of what he normally does. Instead of stealing thoughts during a dream, Cobb must plant a thought in the subject’s mind, otherwise known as inception. The prize, if he correctly implants the idea, will get him out of past legal trouble and end his life on the run.
The underlying theme throughout the movie is one of desperation. Cobb is still, after years, morning his late wife and constantly seeing images of their children, who he has not seen in years and is desperately trying to get back to them.
Ellen Page gives a solid performance as a student hired by Cobb to help with the inception, but ends up helping him get a tighter grip on his own reality.
Like Nolan’s films in the past, “Inception” has mind-blowing special effects that make “Transformers” look like a Syfy made-for television movie. Whether it is upside down buildings folding on top of each other or high-action fighting scenes while floating in rooms with no gravity, Nolan keeps you guessing and staying on the edge of your seat with these mind bending effects.
“Inception” follows the track of other movies from Nolan, like “Memento,” the movie where scenes play in reverse, making it hard to follow and understand. “Inception” might be a movie you have to see more than once to fully grasp the concepts, but you can appreciate its brilliance after one viewing.
Nolan not only directed, but also wrote the movie, and besides the story line seeming a bit underdeveloped and confusing at times, “Inception” still pulls you in and keeps you engaged throughout the movie.
“Inception” might not fully capture the grandeur and imagination of our true dreams, but it appears Nolan has gotten as close as possible.