INCEPTION

Christopher Nolan has made a masterpiece. HIS masterpiece. By this point everyone knows the plot so I won’t rehash it here. What I will do is try and put into words why I didn't like it. Please, before you tense up and say "whatever, you just don't get it" hear the words that are coming out of my mouth (how’s that for sacrilegious, a rush hour reference in a Nolan review, hehehe).

The basic plot of the film is a simple heist, only instead of stealing something, they have to plant something, and idea. Instead of a bank it's someone’s mind. Instead of cracking a code you have to delve into the depths of a person’s mind. What an elaborate and fascinating idea. Nolan is no stranger to playing with plot structure to help tell a story, something he did to masterful effect in MEMENTO. Where the fractured structure of the plot actually BECAME a part of the storytelling. Here he has crafted a plot structure as complex as the mind these thieves have to infiltrate. You can just sense how much fun it was for him to come up with all these rules, then play with them and twist and bend the very concept in every direction it could be taken. What I LOVED about this is how you never see a "good" example of how things should go. Usually in a film with this much exposition you have someone that explains what’s supposed to happen, you see an example of that, and your fully informed as an audience member so at the end of the film when that situation arises, and things inevitably go wrong, you know what’s going on, even when it's not going the right way. Here, every time Nolan has a character set something up, and it starts to happen, it goes wrong. You learn about the "rules" of this universe from how things SHOULDN'T have been done. It's a little detail that forces you to think even through the portions of the film that are usually reserved for expository speeches.

But therein lays my very issue with this film as a whole. People are calling it a "thinking man’s summer blockbuster" which couldn't be further from the truth. That label implies the piece inspires thought and discussion about the ideas presented therein. INCEPTION will cause debate, and many will want to go watch it again, but it'll only to gain better understanding of the plot, and how all the dots are connected, if in fact they are. I trust Nolan, and though there are a few fuzzy spots in continuity, I have no doubt that all the t's are crossed, and all the i's are dotted. My issue with him is that he made a film where the entire point of its existence was for a film to have the very nature of a labyrinth, where the point of it existing is for it to wrap end over end upon itself, with twists and turns integral to the plot. You see what I’m talking a lot about here? PLOT. There is just so much of it. So much in fact, that there is literally no time for anything else, including character. Ellen Paige’s character is a brilliant college student who is asked to join this group of thieves in this highly illegal operation to delve into someone’s mind. She doesn't hesitate. A college student with a bright future just jumps right into this thing. WHAT?!?! They don't even offer a single solitary line of dialogue to explain why she'd do such a thing that even the most dubious of people in society would at least think about first. Why not? Because the movie itself could care less about this chick, or her motivations, or anyone else’s. Maybe if I was a mathematician I’d have enjoyed it more. Its' all about the how’s and not about the why's, which is a personal preference for me. If this film gave half a damn about the characters as it did the masterwork of a plot, maybe I’d have more interest in the plot itself.

SPOILERS BELOW!!!!

Ok, now here are my two main complaints about the film:
The wife: De Caprio's wife is a psycho bitch. Well, that how he remembers it anyway. Her memory keeps coming up to get in the way of his missions. The second I saw this device, which has been used many, many times before in other far inferior films I thought "oh god, this is predictable, but Nolan being Nolan I’m sure this will play out very unexpectedly." when in fact it played out note for note exactly how I thought it would. Down to the very last scene. Granted this time it featured two of our generations’ best actors and was done so much better than before. But at the end of a nightmare on elm street heather lagenkamp looks at Freddy in her dreams and says "you’re only as powerful as I make you. I’m not afraid of you anymore" and Freddy vaporizes. High art it aint but the idea is there. That idea is used here for inception. WOW, for such a complex movie I guessed the ending of that part in the first ten minutes.

The last shot: once again a device that has been used before. The last shot makes you wonder if it was all a dream, or if it was all real. The answer is that it doesn’t matter. Either way, Leo Decaprio's struggle through the film is to come to terms with his wife’s death, which one way or another he did. So if he's dreaming in limbo or in real life with his kids, he's happy and at peace. My issue with it is that Nolan threw it in there not because it was important to the character, or even the plot, but it makes you think. It’s ambiguous, but for no other reason than to be ambiguous. Any emotion that scene could have had is robbed by that last shot. Just like the opening passages of the film never just explain anything straight through, he had to mess it up so you had to focus on what was going on. It's not an easy film to watch. You have to bring your a-game. But for what pay off? Emotionally there is none.

END SPOILERS!!!!!!

Christopher Nolan has made a masterpiece. It will no doubt be studied in film class for years to come, as it should be. There are moments of sheer bliss. The zero gravity fight is breathtaking. Many have compared it to the matrix, which is a falsehood I feel. It has more in common with 2001 a space odessy. I wish there were more moments like that, or when the city of Paris folds over onto itself. A small throwaway moment of Ellen Paige shutting mirrored doors on each other that were hidden in broad daylight. It’s a visual trick that conveys an idea. It’s quick, fun and inventive. These moments are few and far between. Obviously the film succeeds on its own terms, and there for is a resounding success. I personally don't mind investing every inch of brainpower into a thick and deep film, if there is a payoff for it. MEMENTO had that, but I was so invested in that mans journey I’d have watched and sifted through a 5 hour version of it. Here, the payoff is in the plot's construction itself. For some that is more than enough. For me, that misses the entire point of why I watch film in the first place. Clearly Nolan is still one of my favorite directors, as this is easily the longest review I’ve ever written, and it was for a film I ultimately didn't enjoy. But I do respect it.