Review: Inception

Christopher Nolan is seen somewhat as a visionary in cinema by some and as an overrated self-serving egomaniac by the rest, but let’s face it, he made non-linear storytelling fashionable. And if the plot were to run backwards, as in Memento, only those who can (or at least attempt to) piece the movie together from end to start can actually have a conversation about it. Which was a task that even Aamir Khan, seen somewhat as the most intelligent film star/film-maker around, couldn’t do. His staunch refusal to accept the fact that Ghajini was an Indianised Memento is testament to the fact.

I haven’t seen The Dark Knight to pronounce judgement on it, and I do know that I’m in the minority and will be looked at with much disdain for not being “with it”, as you’ll say (I’ll get around to it soon, I promise), but I’ve seen Memento and I’ve read enough about Christopher Nolan to know he’s blessed with a vivid imagination. And the fact that The Dark Knight has more recall value in Nolan’s oeuvre and Memento gets a perfunctory afterthought-esque mention irks me no end.

Now take another non-linear narrative – here, a story within a story unfolds that adds to your frustration layer by layer, scene by scene, character by character that by the time you’ve figured out what’s happening in one story, there’s a development in the sub-story that makes you question yourself.

Now (spoiler alert!) compound it two times, add a sub-plot that is (supposed to be) the emotional crux of the story, lead the audience along on one idea and segue just as the audience is about to expect some form of closure, throw in some gravity-defying stunts and fight scenes, get a busy city square to fold on itself and then seal the deal with a climax that doesn’t offer you any concrete answers.

Are you with me so far?

Here’s the plot – a step up from the usual treatment that movies based on dreams or the subconscious get. Think Eternal Sunshine, Vanilla Sky, What Dreams May Come – you get the picture. Filmmakers tend to associate dreams with romanticism, finer emotions, et al (I’m not counting Kubrick here). What if we could treat dreams as a reality outside reality, an alternate world where things happen beyond our control, and sometimes, as a direct result of it? Nolan gives Inception this treatment.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, dream-stealer par excellence by profession, who can get into the minds of unsuspecting individuals in power and “extract” their thoughts for a price – he’s a thought-extractor-for-hire in the world of corporate espionage. While on one such mission, he’s approached by Saito (Ken Watanabe) to “plant” an idea into a business rival’s (Fischer, played by the ever dependable Cillian Murphy) mind, something Cobb hasn’t done so far in his enviable career of dream invasion. This job offer also gives him a chance at redemption and gaining his old life back which, due to vicissitudes of fate, he’s had to leave behind. He puts together a team of expert conmen in the typical heist-movie style – strategist Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), newbie architect Ariadne (Ellen Page), shapeshifter Eames (a very assured Thomas Hardy) and the druid Yusuf (Dileep Rao) who can give them the chemical means to proceed on their mission. And as with all Nolan protagonists, Cobb comes with some weighty baggage.

Now begins the wild ride that, despite some plot slip-ups (Spoiler alert: I think I noticed some sky in the scene where a busy Parisian street folds on itself), tepid attempts at repartee between Eames and Arthur and a tad too emotional sub-plot (or the basis, as Eames would put it) delivers some fantastic thrills, and sheer movie-watching fun for a little over two hours. The high points of the movie are the stunts, effects, photography and the layering of the plot, and the lowest point is the overindulged emotional core of the movie, the relationship between Cobb and Mal, his wife, played by delicate beauty Marion Cotillard (she’ll always be Edith Piaf to me).

Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have arrived on the sets of Inception straight from the sets of Shutter Island/The Departed. Marion Cotillard shines in some scenes, but she doesn’t have much scope for histrionics. Ellen “Juno” Page is ready to move on from being a teenage mother, but seems to be a perfunctory “girly” add to Cobb’s team.

Think Clive Owen’s suavity and easy charm, add Gerard Butler’s brash and brawn to it, weave in a day’s stubble – and you have Thomas Hardy. Easily the best-sketched character of the lot, Hardy is fantastic as the “Pretender” of the dream-invading team. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the next Jude Law, mark my words (impossible as it may seem and I hope Jude Law never retires). Hair slicked back, sharp-jawed and with charm writ large on his face, he is a refreshing change from the heartbroken twenty-something from 500 Days of Summer. Michael Caine, pardon me, Sir Michael Caine gets about two and a half minutes of screen time, and Nolan gets no points from me for that, especially when Tom Berenger gets more than 10 minutes (with all due respect to him). But then again, when isn’t Michael Caine criminally underused?

Inception is at its core a spectacle – a grand, self-assured, elaborate brain-tease of a movie that attempts to be nothing but. And on that level, it delivers. Not many movies can have you walking out the theater with a grin plastered on your face – especially after a (sounds like) mind-tuck of an ending. You can spend endless hours discussing and debating the climax of the movie, you can go on about glaring loopholes in the plot, but at the end of it all, you have to give credit where it’s due. Dreams within dreams in labyrinthine mind mazes that leave you with enough room for interpretation and discussions with movie fanatics for years to come are one of those things you just *can’t* get in real life. And even if you do, how much do you really remember after you’ve woken up?

Go watch Inception. I’m looking forward to my dreams tonight.