“Inception” (2010)

“Inception” comes close to being the perfect blockbuster, a science fiction epic that combines an interesting and intelligently conceived premise with largely sympathetic, rounded characters, involving drama and tense, well executed action.  Writer-director Christopher Nolan single-handedly justifies the existence of Hollywood, producing a nominally mainstream, commercial movie that is the equal of any contemporary art film.  It’s astonishing.

Leonardo Di Caprio plays Cobb, an industrial saboteur who literally gets inside the head of his victims, infiltrating their subconscious as a character within their dreams.  He’s haunted by the memory of a dead wife,  the sense of guilt about her demise compromising his own abilities within dreamscapes.  Exiled from the United States for complicity in her death, Cobb takes on a dangerous assignment which, if successful, will enable him to return and be reunited with his children.  It involves going deep within the subconscious of a tycoon - to dreams upon dreams upon dreams, as it were - to plant the seed of an idea.

The increasing difficulty of distinguishing between fantasy and reality in the digital age is the key thematic issue of “Inception”.  However, Nolan’s real strength as a filmmaker is presenting complex ideas and plot-lines in a crystal clear manner.  His cross cutting between different narrative threads in “The Dark Knight” was exemplary and in “Inception” he fashions a Chinese box like structure of drama within drama and action within action, with characters simultaneously playing out roles on one dream plane effecting outcomes on another.  To potentially confuse things further the differing dimensions are chronologically displaced so that a second of ‘real’ time corresponds to hours in the dream equivalent, the effect multiplying exponentially at deeper dream levels.

As in his Batman films Nolan proves adept at pulling off action sequences.  There’s a danger in combining shoot outs with science fiction, of course, what you could call the ‘Matrix syndrome’ of indulging the fan-boys with lots of ‘cool’ but aesthetically empty images that have more to do with simulating the banality of computer games than making a thematic point.  Nolan’s work offers the opposite: the violence arises out of and reflects the dramatic situation.  The ‘bad guys’ wielding the guns are the manifestation of a subconscious looking to clear itself of invading influence in the same way as white cells police the blood.

The fact that “Inception” is grounded in a credible story of love and betrayal ensures that however fantastical the backdrop it works on a human level.  As is entirely appropriate for a film about retaining a sense of self and facing personal and family responsibility, the special effects ultimately take a back seat.  Di Caprio’s work is focused as seldom before and he’s matched by supporting actors well cast to type, including a brooding Marion Cotillard as Cobb’s wife and the ever pert Ellen Page as a budding computer nerd.