Movie review - Inception

Perspective and perception are amazing things. When the trailer came out, a lot of people were declaring Inception as the next great classic. I'm not sure whether these people noticed that it also didn't seem to indicate a discernible plot to the movie. You're missing quite a piece of information there that could affect our perception of the film, methinks. But now I have seen the movie in full and can decide for myself whether it is a classic or not!

A mysterious man (Leonardo DiCaprio) washes up on a beach - the only items on his person are a gun and a small spinning top. He is brought to an old man who asks mystery man if he is there to kill him (old man). The scene changes - we now find out the mysterious man is named Cobb, and he and a colleague Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are attempting some industrial espionage on Saito (Ken Watanabe) by stealing information from his safe. A mysterious woman named Mal (Marion Cotillard), who clearly has some previous relationship with Cobb, is also present and manages to avert the theft by shooting Arthur in the foot. It turns out however that this entire scene is taking place in a dream - we cut to another scene where the three men are asleep in a shabby room with a fourth man who monitors their responses, while a riot goes on outside. It turns out that Saito knows that Cobb and Arthur are there to complete an 'Extraction' - the theft of information from people's dreams...and in fact this scene in the room with the riot is another dream! And we cut to 'reality' - the four men (plus the monitor) are asleep on the bullet train in Japan. The three men are woken up and escape before Saito awakens. But HA!!! It turns out Saito knew what they were up to - the monitor was a mole! - and the entire charade was an audition to see how good Cobb and Arthur, because Saito wants them to perform an 'Inception' - the planting of an idea into the mind, on Fischer (Cillian Murphy), one of Saito's competitors. An Inception is much more difficult than an Extraction, but Cobb is adamant it can be done and goes about assembling a crack team of people who are required to successfully carry it out - Eames (Tom Hardy) a Forger or someone who can impersonate other people, Yusuf (Dileep Rao) a Chemist or someone who can make the appropriate sedatives to give adequate time for the act to be carried out, and Ariadne (Ellen Page) an Architect who builds the environments of the dream.

Are you still confused? You shouldn't be - it's just a heist movie that takes place in the dream world. This means that they can throw in all sorts of cool special effects, do complete changes of scene, and acquire all sorts of strange skills at will without really having to explain themselves - because you never remember how you go places in dreams or explain the weird stuff that happens. That's not to say that the movie is a major cop out a la Vanilla Sky because ITS ALL A DREAM!!! - for one, we're told it's a dream world from the start. So why do I think it's not the classic people other people say it is? I think my perception that it's a simple heist movie may be affecting my perspective of whether it's a classic because when people go on about the movie's complexity, I find myself thinking, *but, but..!* Let me explain.

Once we have the information about what's going on in the movie, you then start to look at why things happen in a movie. In Inception, Cobb's character and motivations are fully realised - he is after all the main character. But he can't do it without the others and we're not given their reasons so much. Why does Arthur continue working with Cobb even when he knows that Mal's existence in the dream world is getting increasingly dangerous? For that matter, why do Eames and Yusuf even join the team? But then I think, *well, this is heist movie - money is a good enough motivation.* Why does Ariadne rejoin the team given that she thinks the dreamworld is kinda dangerous? But then I think, *Heist movie needs a token young idealistic female cast member!* and turn off the bullshit radar again.

There were many times during the movie that I thought *miam, that scene looks good*. Notable places this occured included watching water flood a crumbling palace, seeing what happens when people start to perceive that the world they're in is a dream and things start spectacularly breaking down , and how illogical things like the Penrose stairs can become real. The highlight is definitely when Ariadne realises she can alter the environment of her dream at will and causes the streets of Paris to fold upon themselves. It's amazing! But coming back to the point about perspective and perception, the visual effects are undoubtedly amazing and it was especially interesting to But after a while, my eyes started going *I don't like this!* and developing a headache from trying to figure out the way everything did or did not fit together. And oh-hoho! The script drops in a line essentially saying that the mind (literally) fights what it doesn't like! Coincidence? Maybe, but I couldn't help thinking that it's a deliberate action. This might not be an issue for anyone else.

And then of course, there is the ending of which there are two. The first ending is the end of the caper/heist and links us back to the events of the beginning of the moviem and then there is the second ending which is the actual ending of the movie. I won't say explicitly what happens but both have clearly been set up to have the audience question whether all that we've seen before is reality or yet another layer of a dream. To enter into a Blade Runner-esque *is Deckard a replicant?* argument, if you will. OR it could be that they didn't want to give us a nice, clean, happy Hollywood ending! You decide!

In all, I would say that despite my nit-picking, I would encourage other people to see it. If just because it's not brainless fluff we normally get - at least, not on the surface. Maybe all the pre-release hype has made people think it is genius, and made me look extra hard for reasons why it's not. In any case, great visuals and interesting ideas mean Inception has got the potential to be a classic...just not yet. That would be dependent on repeated viewings. I simply hope that it turns out to be a Matrix or Pulp Fiction-esque grow more interesting with time movie rather than a 'dammit, we've all been sucked in by a gimmick' movie, a la Forrest Gump.
8/10