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Article by Cameron Spink
It took me two sittings to really gain an appreciation for Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece. Where The Dark Knight contained some logical fallacies that left the viewer bewildered even upon a second watch Inception has no such flaws. While the observer is asked to take in a reality that is somewhat confusing at no stage does it push through the limits that are created within the movie itself. Instead if one were to accept the original premise, namely that dreams can be invaded, then every step in the story thereafter is entirely plausible. It is with this complexity that Nolan weaves what I must deem the most complete film I have ever viewed.
The story arc within this intrinsic world is fairly simple, Dom Cobb (played with a reinvigorated Leonardo DiCaprio) is an extractor of ideas for global corporations. With backers so powerful if Cobb is unable to satisfy his contract he immediately becomes the target of the very organisation that previously employed him. However, the story centres around a much more dangerous task that Cobb’s attempts to allude his pursuers. Cobb has been offered a chance to be reunited with his children, of whom he was separated when he had to flee the United States because of an unknown history. But for Cobb to receive this chance he must complete the unthinkable; an inception. Instead of stealing an idea from the mark’s mind he must plant one.
To do this Cobb needs to assemble an espionage team. This includes his right hand man Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt); an architect of the dreams, Ariadne (Ellen Page); a man with the ability to forge identities once in the dream world, Eames (Tom Hardy); the chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao) and their employer Saito (Ken Watanabe). For mind it is Tom Hardy who steals the show as the forger. While Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb is the glue that keeps the team together Tom Hardy’s Eames is what makes the ride worthwhile. Eames provides the comic relief, the most significant abilities in a dream and, at the last, he is the grunt that keeps the forces at bay.
While, in parts, this movie may feel similar to a heist movie its essence is so much more than that. It was said that, upon release, Avatar was inventive. Compared with Inception Avatar seems like a child’s pop-up book. Sure Avatar offered the audience spectacular 3D graphics but in terms of balancing substance of both character and storyline Inception is in a league that until last week I could not have believed imaginable. Cobb offers us a great example of a man constantly weighed down by the guilt of actions in his past. These centre around his dead wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) who plagues and distorts his dreams. It is clear that Cobb is clinging onto any semblance of his wife that he can. In one part he remarks “Look at you. You're just a shade, a shade of my real wife. How could I capture all your beauty, your complexity, your perfection, your imperfection, in a dream? Yes, you're the best that I can do. But, I'm sorry, you're just not good enough.”
 It is this constant struggle that presents the human emotion that runs deep in Inception. Cobb asks us the question as to why dreams feel so real when we’re in them? However, it is not the dreams that Cobb fears. At times this makes the movie bleak as the story takes Cobb places that he did not want to return to. But over the sound of the oncoming train there is light that represents hope.
Many times, through-out the movie, the question is asked to no-one in particular “do you want to take a leap of faith?”. At times this question means nothing to the audience but as the full majesty of Nolan’s creature unfolds these words mean more than reference to the human’s psyche and refers to Cobb’s cravings fuelled by his wife’s ghost. Her lies clash with the aforementioned hope that builds with the music crescendo towards the climax of the film. In the end “negative emotions are always trumped by positive emotions”. This is what makes this movie transcend the science-fiction genre. It is what makes it more than a complex thriller and makes all the action sequences worthwhile. It is the life of the movie hidden behind the crispness of the scenery. To this end Inception eclipses all other films and will, no doubt, remain the best movie I have ever seen for some time.
5 / 5 stars
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