Good lord, you’re all so pretty.
Yeah, there’s Toy Story 3, but that’s not so much a summer popcorn flick as it is a chance for grown men to cry in a movie theater. Besides that, the cinemaplex is a vast entertainment desert. Everything else in wide release is for children or manchildren. So there’s really no reason to spend much time at a theater between now and–oh, let’s say October, just to be safe.
Enter Inception. In a studio environment dominated by remakes, sequels, and sequels to remakes, Inception is truly something new. While Christopher Nolan’s dream-within-a-dreamscape has nods to 2001, Mission: Impossible, the entire James Bond franchise, and The Matrix, it does so in a winking way, rather than ripping off those ideas or beating you over the head with the references. Though it retains the structure of a heist flick, Inception is daringly original and unafraid to aim high. The film occasionally threatens to collapse under its own weight (and two-and-half-hour running time), but somehow it doesn’t. And Nolan, along with his dexterous, high-flying cast, pulls it off in a rather sly fashion.
The plot? This is definitely one of those films where the less you know, the better. Leonardo DiCaprio (thankfully sans Boston accent, as well as Marty Scorsese) makes his living spelunking into others’ dreams, with the help of a team of suit-clad professionals, including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy. Usually, their work involves invading a dreamer’s subconscious to extract information, but this time around, they’ve been hired by global business magnate Ken Watanabe to get into the dreams of one of his rivals (Cillian Murphy) and plant the seed that he needs to dissolve his corporate empire. You know, business stuff. Ellen Page plays the architect who creates the dreamworld they enter, and as the newest member of the team, she serves as character that helps explain The Rules to the audience.
And that’s all you really need to know. The dream team traverses the globe (both within the subconscious and IRL), going into unconsciousness and even deeper than that. The beautiful cast acts beautifully, with Leo employing his perma-furrowed brow to great effect. There’s some solid action sequences, including chase scenes where you can actually tell who’s chasing whom–are you taking notes, Paul Greengrass?–and CGI special effects that aren’t annoying within the context of dream logic (see the streets of Paris folding upon themselves).
Inception‘s not perfect, but it is fun. It’s a high-minded sci-fi meta-thriller, a piece of entertainment that excites while making you think, and one that challenges its viewers to keep up with the action. Considering all the dregs currently at the box office, it’s nice to have a film that doesn’t condescend to its audience or treat them like a pack of slobbering idiots. For that, Christopher Nolan, I salute you.
Inception opens tomorrow at the Meridian, the Neptune, Majestic Bay, the Big Picture, and the Metro. It also plays in IMAX at Pacific Science Center and Thornton Place.
Word on the street: the sexy lesbian kiss scene between Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page was edited out by the homophobic bigots in hollywood. Boycott this movie until this scene is restored to the theatrical release – PSYCHE! My bad just kiddin’. That scene exists only in my … wait for it … dreams (get it?), friend.