There will probably be a few *spoilers* in this so if you haven't seen it you might not want to tread any further.
Ok, as many of you know, I generally have an aversion to Leonardo DiCaprio, and rarely see his movies, and never, ever go to see them in the theatre. I decided to make an exception to this to see Inception, mostly because I really like Christopher Nolan's directorial style. Despite the fact the DiCaprio was in this film I was not disappointed at the quality delivered in this twisty, surreal dream of a movie.
Firstly, the reason this movie only gets an 8 is because, although it is a very good film, it is far from perfect. I will get to some of those issues later in the review, but first I want to discuss the cast. Mostly, this is an excellently cast and superbly acted movie. But there was a couple of misfires. Ellen Page is a talented actress, but she really didn't bring much to the table here other than the fact that she is super cute. Her character is rather bland, and she is far better at playing a snarky, sarcastic, 40 year old in an 18 year old body than she is the subdued and serious role. Also, Marion Cotillard is just a bit overrated, and really wasn't very good in this film. I know a lot of people love her in Taxi, (the original, not the crappy Jimmy Fallon/Queen Latifah remake) and a lot of people like her in Public Enemies, but she really just doesn't do it for me. Partially what bothered me about this film is her somewhat stony acting (kind of normal for her) and the fact that she couldn't decide if she was French, English, or American, oh she of the changing accent. Leonardo DiCaprio was what I expected, an above average performance, but hampered a bit by his limited emotional range and his fall back facial expressions that he uses as crutches. All in all though, he does do a good job. I actually like him better now that he is an adult, and I kind of respect the fact that he unashamedly keeps a bit of a gut. The rest of the cast is sublime. Joseph "Cobra Commander" Gordon-Levitt nails his part well as the less imaginative straight man Arthur. His brief but excellent interaction with Tom Hardy's Eames is excellent. Hardy himself does an excellent job in this film. Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, 28 Days Later) is good in his roll, and Dileep Rao (Drag Me to Hell, Avatar) is also very good. My favorite is Ken Watanabe who plays Saito. He is an excellent actor that is vastly under used in American cinema. All in all, the casting and acting in this film is rather excellent.
The film itself is beautifully shot. The dream sequences were beautiful, in particular the second level of the dreams inside Fisher was magnificent. It was only basically in the hotel, but the twisting rooms, and the fight scenes with Gordon-Levitt were fantastic. However, that does bring us to some of the factors that brought the movie down just a hair for me. I didn't really buy there explanation for why the second dream level had no gravity because they were in free fall in the first dream level, but the lack of gravity and what was happening in the second dream level had no real affect on the stability of the third dream level, although all of this happening still had a tremendous affect on what was going on in limbo. At times it basically felt that he was sacrificing continuity a bit just so he could make his plot fit. I don't really have a problem with that, but it made the plot a little thin during this phase of the movie. These sorts of inconsistencies is why the movie gets an 8 instead of a higher rating. Also, it seems like limbo isn't that big a deal, didn't he just kill himself in limbo to get out of it? Why could't that have worked again?
As for the interpretation of the film, there are about a zillion ways in which you can interpret it. Firstly, the use of the totems as a way to separate reality from dream, particularly in the case of DiCaprio's top that he spins. The top failing to keep spinning is not a good way of determining reality. As they said several times, the dreamer makes the rules. And if you believe, truly believe or even really want to believe that your dream is reality, then the rules you set forth will make the top behave as the dreamer wants. So at know point is the top stopping its spin a 100% surety that the dreamer is in reality and not still in the dream. Secondly, there is quite a bit of symbolism to part of the dream being a hell of sorts. This could be interpreted as this is all DiCaprio being in his personal hell and seeking redemption. They refer to the bottom level as limbo, and essentially it does seem to be a sort of purgatory for him. He refers to that level as being "down there" and when he talks about his kids to Mal he says he wants to see them again "up there." Also in his memory vault in the elevator the memory with the most personal torment is on the bottom level, going down from the top to the bottom for the most torment. Also another parallel to hell. Thirdly, the most talked about part of the movie is the ending. Did the top stop spinning? Did it really matter? Is he still part of the dream? It doesn't really matter, he could make it fall if he wanted even if he was in the dream. It was I think, wobbling as if to fall more so that it showed in the other scenes when it was still spinning. In the end scene it was wobbling, looking as if it would fall. Some people will point to the age of the kids to say that it was probably a dream, I just don't think that much time has past, or he is projecting his kids as they are into his dreams. Me, personally, I am tired of movies that always have bad endings, thats kind of a trend in movie making right now. I would prefer to think that everything worked out for him and he was in reality. I actually do think that him just leaving the top spinning and the camera closing before it stopped had a different point that the obvious. The real point wasn't that he might or might not be in reality, it was that he had closure and absolution and just didn't care anymore because he was at peace. I really do highly recommend that anyone who enjoys good cinema go and see this film and go and see it in the theatre so that complete and full immersion into the dream is possible. Who knows, maybe we aren't in reality when we leave the theatre.
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