"Inception" is a rare summer movie with a high opinion of its audience.
The multi-layered film demands strict attention, and rewards it richly.
Leonardo DiCaprio is terrific as Dom Cobb, a professional thief with a team that can invade people's dreams to steal their secrets. That makes them particularly useful to government entities and corporations with everything to lose.
The team's hired by a powerful businessman (an always reliable Ken Watanabe) to invade the mind of his competition to plant and idea, rather than steal one, in a process called inception.
Cobb may be an expert at navigating people's subconscious, but his own demons may sabotage him. They come in the form of Marion Cotillard, exuding sexual energy masking dark secrets.
The cast is top notch with Cobb's team including expert dream-travelers Joseph Gordon Levitt and Tom Hardy. Ellen Page is the newcomer to the group, serving as our entry-way to learning the many rules and nuances of this sci-fi fantasy.
In the film there are dreams, dreams within dreams and dreams within dreams - a lot for a filmmaker to juggle. Writer and director Christopher Nolan of "The Dark Knight" handles it capably. He should - he reportedly spent a decade writing this film. His impeccable imagination is fleshed out with awe-inspiring visuals, mind-bending plot turns, and an emotional through-line that cuts deep.
The biggest flaw with "Inception" might be that it's nearly too expository. Nolan is working with big ideas, and the film needs to lay out a lot of rules. It sometimes sounds rigid, rather than conversational.
It's different from Nolan's own "Memento," which also dealt with time-shifting and confused identities. But with that film the images on screen spoke for themselves.
But there's no getting around the brilliance of imagination at work in "Inception." Having seen in twice in three days, I can tell you the film opens itself up more after a second look, but there are still mysteries to be debated and discussed.
Summer movies aren't
supposed to do that. That's one rule Nolan doesn't mind breaking.
EPPLER'S RATING: * * * * 1/2Out of 5 stars.
