Inception

Director Christopher Nolan’s latest film is so complex and layered that it definitely requires multiple viewings, if only to understand everything. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, a thief who extracts people’s secrets from their minds while they’re sedated. But he is a broken man, constantly tormented by his own personal demons, trapped in Dante’s seventh circle of hell. One day, a prospective client named Saito (Ken Watanabe) specially requests something of Cobb: convince a business rival (Cillian Murphy) to dissolve his father’s company by using an idea known as “inception”. This means that, instead of stealing information, he’ll be planting an idea that will grow like a parasite inside the man’s mind. In return, Saito promises Cobb the one thing that he has desired for so long: to see his children again.

But to accomplish such a task, Cobb needs a skilled team, so he recruits a college student named Ariadne (Ellen Page) to be his architect; wisecracking forger Eames (Tom Hardy, in a very entertaining performance); Arthur (Joseph-Gordon Levitt), Cobb’s fellow extractor who always plans their next mission carefully; and Yusuf (DiLeep Rao), a chemist who concocts the potent dream sedatives. Nolan makes Page’s architect essentially a stand-in for the audience, someone who both receives exposition from Cobb, and also delivers plenty of her own. That said, there are many rules to this world, and establishing them before diving headfirst into this dreamworld is the best way to help viewers understand them.

On a purely aesthetic level, Nolan pulls off quite a remarkable feat: providing us with not only a visual feast, but a surprisingly deep story with a superbly ambiguous ending. The beautiful dreamscapes seem inspired by M.C. Escher, and the director’s use of practical effects make the action sequences that much more exhilarating. Wally Pfister’s cinematography is amazing. Hans Zimmer’s score is powerful and hauntingly beautiful. The cast is solid, although DiCaprio makes perhaps the biggest impression as a tortured soul with secrets of his own–important information that he is deliberately keeping from his team.

The film noticeably drags a bit during the more expository scenes, even if the characters are surrounded by amazing visuals. It especially gets bogged down in the third act.

Perhaps it’s too much to expect a film about exploring the human mind and dreams to be a bit more cerebral than it really is. That might be asking too much from the same man whose 2000 hit Memento was so twisted and tangled, yet somehow felt more human. Still, Inception is a mind-bending experience that demands multiple viewings.

2 hours, 28 minutes