Inception
Talking about your dreams is something you do when you have nothing else to say, and it usually is that conversation stopper of no-return. Inception, which premiered Friday night nationwide, manages to talk about not only about one dream with great success, but it manages to pull off dreams within dreams within dreams within the context of the film.
Quite a feat in itself, but it doesn’t stop there. It also introduces the Inception concept, where "a seed once planted in the mind will spread." Intertwined throughout all this is a love story between husband and wife, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mal (Marion Cotillard) who just can’t get enough of their "dream-world." Lost in time that is equivalent to 50 years in dream-terms, but in actual reality could’ve been but a couple of hours, Cobb had to plant a "seed" into Mal’s mind that her dream-world wasn’t reality.
Unluckily for him, the idea festered in Mal’s mind after she woke up, and ended up an unbeliever even of the real-world. Losing the love of his life is heartbreaking enough, and Cobb has yet to reconcile with his loss. Yet once Cobb gets a chance to fulfill his ultimate dream - to see his children again, he jumps at the opportunity without thinking twice. With a proposition from someone from the higher up, Cobb and his gang of elite dream-busters pursue their biggest job yet, which is to spread a seed into a relatively impeachable fortress — the mind of CEO Robert Fischer Jr., played by Cillian Murphy.
Falling into the flux of rabbit hole after rabbit hole can get tiresome. When Cobb and his gang realize they need to plant into Fischer’s dream an idea so outrageous they must go dig deep into the depths of his consciousness, Ariadne (Ellen Page) realizes that Cobb is guilty of hiding something very important from the gang, and it is likely this key factor that changes the chances of them ever coming back into the real world again.
Viewers could’ve gotten lost in the dream-within-dream-within-dream sequence but instead they were right along for the ride. The emotive forces of the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page will embellish the film’s intense power over audience members, and the dream certainly does come alive as we fall deep and deeper within this world.
Jumping through so many loop-holes can get loopy. When the gang enters the first floor of conscious, they are met with opposition right away. A group of Matrix-like suited men are out to get Cobb and his gang. Out of nowhere they pursue the pack with determined force. We learn soon enough that they are not kidding around. Throughout the film, the men pursue the gang with great relish, shooting at them through explosive car-chases, etc., yet we never get a clear picture of who sent them.
Perhaps this is all a part of Cobb’s inner guilt, a deviation from the actual mission, but guilt all the same, and Cobb certainly carries a whole lot of that. Perhaps Mal sent them, but what kind of power does she have after all, if she can send 50 men out in this dream world to bust the dream-pack? This might sound really confusing, but imagine yourself in the actual storyline. At one point Ariadne asks appropriately enough, ‘Which subconscious are we in again?’
Towards the end, we are jolted by many ‘kicks’ to get back from the layers of dreams to get back to reality as we know it. The ending, filled with many explosive buildings, free-falling vans, and with our main character at gunpoint, is executed in many ways like the film Titanic. The long destruction of an entire ship was emotively heart-breaking, yet at the same time, Inception’s destructive power was more cathartic than anything.
With three levels of dreams and drama, and a multi-layered plot, the idea gets so complex and the way director Christopher Nolan manages to pull it off without a glitch is brilliant and awesome in its entirety. One of the rules in storytelling is to leave the dream-sequences alone, yet Nolan manages to break all these silly rules with zest. And thank god he did, or else Inception might never have been dreamed up.