Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has a highly unusual career: he extracts information (secrets) from people’s dreams when they are asleep, by joining in on the dream. He works with a team and his most frequent member is Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
Though his assignments are exciting, Cobb is far from being happy because his job isn’t exactly legal, and he is declared a criminal in the States, where his two little children live. He is also starting to lose his unique ability or at least getting a huge blow with the constant interruptions from Mal (Marion Cottilard), with who he seems to have a very complicated past with.
Cobb finally seems to have a shot at seeing his children, however, when he makes a very risky agreement with the powerful businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe). This time, the mission is not to extract information but to plant a thought in someone’s head, and make him think that this was his idea all along. Their “subject” is Robert Fischer Jr. (Cillian Murphy), the son of Saito’s biggest competitor. Now that Robert Sr. is dying, Jr. will be left to rule the business and it is best for Saito if he lets his father’s business fall apart.
Cobb puts another team together for the mission. Along with Arthur, he recruits Ariadne (Ellen Page) –a young and very successful architect who can design the dream world they need, Eames (Tom Hardy) –a great thief and forger and Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist who will provide them with the most powerful drugs to help intensify the dream stage.
But the mission is very dangerous and complex and Dom just might not have been honest with everyone. And Robert Fischer Jr. just might not be as an easy target as they initially thought…
Now, obviously this is not a movie where any plot summary can do justice. It is a brilliant movie with an awesome script, stunning visuals and a great cast. And the best part is, you don’t really need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this film. I am not, for instance. You just need to have an interest in mind-benders and well, a little fantasy. Sure, there are people who didn’t like the film but I have a feeling they are not in the majority since the movie just got to number 3 on IMDB’s top 250 movies list, voted by over 88.000 people. And it is currently number 1 at the box office. Now, don’t let the 9.2 rating scare you. I know it scared me. I thought I would find a vastly overrated movie.
And while I’d not quite say it is the best third film ever made, it is certainly much more impressive, original and clever than most films that made it to that list, which is formed by movie-goers themselves. I also didn’t know what to expect as I didn’t exactly have a great time at Batman The Dark Knight (Batman movie co- written and directed by Christopher Nolan) and I do find it a bit too long and indeed overrated (don’t hate me, my idea of a good comic book character is Iron Man as he is not that “dark” and “serious”) and I definitely believe writer/director Christopher Nolan comes up with much better stuff when it is coming from his own imagination. While I am not a Dark Knight fan, I really love Memento, another Christopher Nolan film that is also on the top 250 list and I am pretty sure by this time you have either heard about or seen Memento.
I am not sure if I like Inception as much as Memento, but I definitely enjoyed the ride. I wasn’t all that engaged in the first 10 minutes of the movie but then the movie picked up pace and never really slowed down. But it is not all action and it is not all fantasy. And Nolan has made marvelous observations about the dream state and what we remember afterwards or how our dreams are structured. There is a chance you will end up having different interpretation of the movie, even with your friends. The emotions Cobb goes through are very humane and you can’t help but empathize with his pain. But I found all the actors to be perfect for their roles. And among with all the mind-bending, paradoxes and complexities that seem to threaten even sanity, the movie does have some really good one-liners to put a smile on your face. But of course they light the mood up for about a split second.
And obviously I’d love any comments here too. While I didn’t include spoilers in the summary, I do welcome them in the comments.
8.8 on IMDB. I think anywhere between 8-9 suits this movie fine. Brilliant. A little dark for my taste, but I just can’t resist it.
Note: Michael Caine has a small role as Miles, Cobb’s father. And both Michael Caine and Cillian Muprhy appear in both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
Favorite Scenes:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s fighting scene at the hotel, without the gravity.
The fall of the van to the water, synchronized with the dream levels.
Pretty much any chasing scene, as they are glorious.
The dreams falling apart.
Anything we find about Mal…
OK, I have a lot more. Please share yours.
[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3XzUYd6nrU&feature=PlayList&p=7FD12EDD62CA1846&index=0&playnext=1[/pro-player]
What should I tell about this film? 🙂 I really like it, the director and the actors are so successful. I think that Leonardo Di Caprio is getting better and better, finally he is acting in good films. I found the film a bit long and it is so complex that I couldn’t catch up the film for a while while I was watching it. After the film, I thought about the dreams once more time!
A clever, unique movie!! Leo DiCaprio exceeded himself…in my opinion, that was one of his greatest performance. Also great Ken Watanabe (one of my favourite actors).
My fave scenes: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s fighting scene at the hotel, without the gravity; Dreams falling apart; Cillian Murphy meeting his dying father, Pete Postlethwaite (a brilliant actor; we’ll all miss him!).
Great review, Pinar !!!! Congrats !!
A great review, and I’ve just been through the 6 different interpretations you link to. Gosh, I want to believe them all. I think I may be partial to no.1 and no. 3. I think a 7th is missing and that the small part Michael Caine played is overlooked, and that perhaps his part was not that small afterall. Went through some of the interesting comments below the interpretations too. My theories about the movie keep changing, and I don’t even mind. I think that perhaps that’s mostly all Christopher Nolan wanted of audiences – to enjoy a mind bender, to think about it afterwards, and to discuss it with others. That’s a ton of free movie exposure. It’s an excellent “con artist” movie, no matter who is doing the incepting, and on who it’s being done. I feel the inception was done by Christopher Nolan, on the audience watching the movie. And what a brilliant inception it was, and still is.
Thanks so much visiting the blog, Teresa. Hope you come back:)
Yes, it is a total mind bender. I can’t imagine pulling that kind of script off as a writer- it takes imagination, guts and some real organization to really make that story work. And it works brilliantly. But I have to hand it to the cast as well. They were all great.
@Patricia: Thanks. I realize that we agree on the favorite scenes. God, those scenes were totally breath-taking. Frankly, I liked everything about the film except Leo’s hairstyle- he just can’t go wrong with the style in Blood Diamond but I guess I should take it up to his stylist;)
I also adore the archirtecture analogies!
Cillian Murphy is always marvelous to watch. Have you seen Red Eye? Not a brilliant movie, but his acting makes it well worth it.