REVIEW: ‘Inception’

Unlike “twist” movies such as “The Sixth Sense” or “The Crying Game,” Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is difficult to talk about because it’s such a densely packed movie. It’s a rarity in a summer season filled with light, disappointing trifle and lower-common-denominator appealing sequels. It’s a top-tier movie that is unflinchingly set on cramming as much plot and action into 148 minutes, without letting you come up for air once.

Simply: “Inception” is the best major studio film I’ve seen in 2010, bar none.

To buy into “Inception,” you’re asked to buy into the premise that it’s possible to create a landscape, deposit a person into it, and extract secrets from them while they’re unconscious and vulnerable. Skilled thieves, such as Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), are able to pilfer industrial secrets of the highest order and bring them out of the dreamscape to whomever his employer may be. There are other members of his team, including Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who assist with the heist when the dreamer’s subconscious fights back.

While “extraction” is an accepted practice, planting an idea into a dreamer’s mind, or “inception,” is considered nigh impossible to all, except Cobb. A powerful businessman (Ken Watanabe) approaches Cobb with an offer he can’t refuse – perform an “inception” on a rival (Cillian Murphy), and Cobb’s legal problems back in America will disappear. Haunted by his past, and the children he may never see again, Cobb takes the job.

This is as simple of a teasing synopsis as I can provide, because Christopher Nolan drops you into the thick of the action and simply keeps piling on the narrative. The explanation of how dreams can be crafted and how “inception” works is given to the audience when Cobb recruits a new dream architect, Ariadne (Ellen Page), and shows her the ropes. It’s as close as you get to straight exposition, and even then doesn’t feel like a lull, or wasted screen time.

All of the performances are spot on. DiCaprio plays Cobb with a haunted urgency, on par with his work in “The Departed.” Page surprises with a turn as the new member of the crew, who gets closer to Cobb’s real motivations than he would like. Also, Tom Hardy follows up his star-making turn in “Bronson” with Eames, a leering master of dream disguises.

Nolan’s visual team, led by cinematographer Wally Pfister, have outdone themselves. “Inception” is a smorgasbord of reality-bending effects, breathtaking camerawork, and elements that will leave audiences gasping.

There’s been grousing from some corners that “Inception” is too cerebral a movie for most audiences. While I can somewhat see their point, I look at it as an added benefit, not a detractor. There’s something to be said about a movie that does not give you easy answers, that challenges you to keep up instead of spoonfeeding you small dollops. Nolan has crafted a script that is tautly-paced, crackling with energy, and refuses to “talk down” to the audience. He’s to be commended for having the clout to make a movie like this, with studios bending over backwards to pound out derivative sequels and rehashes of 30-year-old properties.

“Inception” is a movie that you’ll be talking about long after you leave the theater, and will want to run right back in and watch again. In a summer of small victories and wasted potential, “Inception” is a refreshing victory for moviegoers who want more for their buck.