I thought it would be a good time to start branching out to other areas of science-fiction (but still keeping with the theme of discussing future ideas in science and science-fiction), and now is good a time as any following the recent release of Christopher Nolan’s Inception.  This highly anticipated film has all the elements of a mind-twisting, high-pulsed action, yet critic-pleasing blockbuster.  Ever since Memento was released in 2000, I have become a huge fan of Nolan’s work.  In fact, I’ll just come out and say it:  this is the type of storyteller that I aspire to (I know, I have a long way to go).

Nolan has consistently displayed a knack for creating stories that are cerebral, but in a way that doesn’t snub its audience.  Particularly in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, there was always a way for both the snobbiest film critic and, well, the not-so-snobby movie go-er to enjoy his films.  The only film I can think of that perhaps fell outside of this category was maybe Insomnia.

In Inception, Nolan explores the dream world and blends it with corporate espionage.  They have the technology now for people to share in other people’s dreams.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays the main character Cobb and this is Leo’s first project with Nolan.  Accompanying Cobb is his team of ‘dream experts,’ played by Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Tom Hardy, and Dileep Rao.  Ellen Page plays the architect and is the young newcomer to the team; she represents the ‘explain-everything-to-me-but-we’re-really-explaining-to-the-audience’-character.  It’s difficult to pinpoint why, but there’s a special chemistry between all of them, and I ended up liking the team.  Page’s character surprisingly ends up as the emotional anchor and guide to Cobb, which you might expect being the young and inexperienced member who can still see things from an outside perspective.

To say that the film is a visual feast for eyes is an understatement; the dream environment twists and turns and twists some more, and gravity is suspended in some cases (pretty obvious from the trailers).  Nolan tries to keep the rules (and style) consistent from dream to dream, but there’s no real conceptual reason why a giant robot couldn’t just appear and start terrorizing the people of Paris.  Nolan’s dream world is grounded in realism, yet still manages to be surreal, and in my opinion, visually more creative than The Matrix.  I’m just glad that the characters don’t break out in kung-fu.

Nolan makes a daring move by making the dreams multilayered (dream within a dream within a…well, you get the idea), risking losing its audience in total confusion.  If you’re not paying attention or you get up to go to the bathroom, it’s easy to completely lose track of what the heck is going on with the characters, because each new dream adds an additional layer that the characters play around in.  But Nolan still manages to keep you grounded by gradually narrowing the focus of the film towards Cobb’s internal turmoil.  This makes you disregard all of the film’s complexities and just enjoy them as eye-candy, while you walk with Cobb to try and resolve his personal dilemma.

Obviously, it takes a tremendous leap to believe that dancing in other people’s dreams is possible.  Apparently, it involves only a suitcase that you connect to intravenously.  Even if the technology were possible, I don’t think I would want people invading my dreams nor would I want to visit other people’s dreams.  The subconscious is more twisted and perverted than we realize (or would want to admit).  If dreams are meant for our brains to digest the random events that we experience when we are conscious, or to express our most innate fears and desires, then this kind of experience of visiting dreams would probably much more frightening than is let on in Inception. 

Despite the disorienting nature of the film, plot-wise, it’s somewhat less disorienting than Memento.  That’s because the team has a singular goal that’s easy to understand (that goal just happens cluttered in a world of messed-up dreams), rather than a character running around trying to figure out what’s going on.  In a summer of mindless action movies, Inception is a must-see.

So go on and dream…one day I might see you there.

My rating:  5.0/5.0 stars

Photograph belongs to Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar.