Christopher Nolan seems to be determined to test our concentration. Memento required us to remember not what happened before, but what had happened afterwards, The Prestige gave precious few indicators of when you were jumping forwards and back and so all you could do was focus and hope you kept up. Batman Begins helped us out with a few well-timed changes of hair-cut. Inception drops us into dreams, dreams within dreams and dreams within dreams within dreams and insists that we watch closely, pay attention and remember all of the little details.
It is an effort that is rewarded in spades with one of the more intelligent, exhilarating and thought-provoking action-thrillers of recent years. Debate will no doubt rage for years as to what is really going on, what the film is about and where dreams and reality end and begin. For the moment though, this is the plot into which we are propelled:-
Cobb (Di Caprio) works as a thief of ideas. He has mastered the technology required to enter someone's dreams and steal their secrets from their sub-conscious. He is approached by a Japanese businessman (Saito)who asks him to carry out the reverse, an inception, the planting of an idea into someone's sub-conscious. Saito cannot compete with the owner of an enormous energy company (Fischer) and so wants to implant in the mind of Fischer's son and heir the idea of breaking the company up.
Cobb remains convinced it can be done, despite his partner's insistence that the sub-conscious always recognises that an idea is not its own and when Cobb is promised that if he can complete the assignment he will able to return home to his children from whom he has been exiled, he gathers together a team to assist him in this most audacious of projects.
The gathering of that team helps us to understand the rules of entering dreams, what can and cannot be done, how dreams can be created (apparently you need an architect), how you can be sure you are no longer in a dream and most crucially, how to wake up. Tom Hardy joins as Eames, a forger, an impersonator of other characters within a dream. Ellen Page is an architecture student, new to dreams, but a fast learner and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Cobb's assistant/sidekick/right-hand man, managing to be endearing, funny, tough as nails and ambiguous all at the same time.
The team have to enter Fischer's dream, then go down two further levels (the aforementioned dream within a dream within a dream), both to trick his subconscious and also to persuade his mind that the idea is something he thought of and not something planted from outside. All the while they must fend off "security operatives", elements of Fischer's sub-conscious trained to identify and destroy invaders, much like white blood cells attacking infection.
This all sounds fiendishly complicated and although it is, it is not as difficult to follow as it sounds. The different layers of dreaming are so different in colour, location and design that it is easy to identify where and when the action is taking place. And don't be mistaken, action is indeed taking place. Despite a certain amount of exposition being necessary to help us understand what is happening and how this all is supposed to work, much of it is done on the move, much like The Bourne Ultimatum. The action is narratively propulsive, rather than just being a set-piece to showcase special effects (I'm talking to you, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). Whether it is a machine-gun sound-tracked car chase, a foot race, snow-mobiles and skiers, or a zero-gravity punch-up in a spinning hotel corridor, it is always compelling, always logical, always thrilling.
Rarely has such a long film felt so short and rarely such a cerebral film made for such perfect Friday night entertainment. The pacing is perfect, moving from dream layer to dream layer with faith in the audiences ability to keep up and with Di Caprio and Page (as the architecture student) on hand both to help explain what is happening, but also anchoring the film with superb performances. The more fantastical plot elements never feel ludicrous, the developments never contrived. We believe in all of the characters, perhaps these two more than any as they both try to successfully navigate what becomes an increasingly complicated and dangerous dream world. Di Caprio plays a role of increasing desperation and determination and conveys brilliantly his profound sadness at the mistakes of his past.
A backlash has already begun against Inception, accusing it of being cold and clinical, a story constructed rather than shared. Some have also resented its seemingly unnecessary complexity, however within its own terms it makes perfect sense. It is a film I cannot recommend highly enough and although its moments of wit and warmth are few and far between, they are there. It is exciting, challenging, absorbing and ultimately baffling, but for once that is a good thing. See it.
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