If you’ve been paying attention since the start you’ll probably know that Chris Nolan has experienced a slight dip in quality over his career.
“WHAAAAA????” I hear you cry.
“But he done The Dark Knight and that’s my bestest film evar evar!”.
Yeah it might well be mate, but let’s face it, it was a bit clunky, overlong and had oblique and unsatisfying sub-plots aplenty.
Before that we had The Prestige (Good because David Bowie’s in it), Insomnia (Good because Al Pacino shouts ever so slightly less than usual) and Memento (one trick pony that still manages to end with someone from ‘Neighbours’ looking good). In my opinion (and it’s the only one that counts round these parts), he’s a trifle overrated. Not saying he’s bad by any means, just not quite the genius he’s made out to be all the time.
So – does Inception justify the hype? Can half-man/half-Brussels sprout DiCaprio ever convince as a leading man?
Yeah…kinda.
Revisiting Memento’s major theme – the unreliability of our own internal world – Inception is massively ambitious, thrusting complex philosophical and neurological ideas at the screen and constantly surprising you with how many stick.
In terms of plot, this is year-one Grinder stuff, with corporations and governments using technology to infiltrate the sleeping minds of various important people, and using this access to uncover everything from military secrets to the KFC secret recipe.
Naturally they need a post-cyberpunk team of ‘Extractors’ to do this – enter Leo and Joseph Gordon-Lovett. They’re the sneaky super-spies (I know, Dicaprio and that kid from ‘3rd Rock From The Sun’…) who squeeze people’s noggins for info, and until now they’ve only been nicking choice titbits. I mean, you can’t plant a new idea in someone’s frontal cortex without them realising it…CAN YOU???
So, this is The Matrix by way of Eternal Sunshine, and, just as only one of those movies is any good (those of you who disagree -fuck you, she’s a complete bitch through the whole fucking movie), this is often only half successful. Fortunately Nolan has anther reference up his sleeve to raise the game a little here – Ocean’s 11.
Yep, despite all the wannabe highbrow intrigue, at it’s core Inception is a heist movie, and a damn good one at that. Much of the viewing pleasure comes from seeing how the pieces fit together, watching the con seamlessly play out as Leo and friends attempt to crack into Cillian Murphy’s brain and make off with the imaginary goods.
Leo quickly began to wish he'd sprung for a Travellodge instead
One of the neat things here is that despite the need for a metric ton of dreamy exposition, it all plays out naturally. Weird shit occurs via some truly stunning special effects, but hey, this is a dream, so weird shit is par for the course, and the fact that things aren’t entirely attached to physics -although there are rules here – makes for some inventive and genuinely thrilling action sequences.
While we’re mentioning those effects, it’s also worth pointing out that although this is a ridiculously over-fx-ed affair, each and every last CGI pixel has a perfect place in the story, and while there’s ‘whoah’ moments aplenty, they never distract from the narrative.
If there’s a criticism here, it’s that some of the philosophical points are a tad too laboured, putting you in mind of a bunch of annoying students on the tube, mouthing off laboriously about Nietzsche without any actual depth, while the character’s lack emotional depth – surely something invaluable when dealing with dreams?
There’s a tacked on grief issues for DiCaprio that fail to resonate. Much like The Dark Knight’s take on Harvey Dent, here the emotions are rushed and just don’t seem entirely plausible.
Other than that however, this is a vaultingly ambitious and visually stunning poke around inside that huge melon you keep perched on your shoulders, full of kick ass action and fun twists that will keep you thoroughly entertained.
One of the best action movies of recent times and one that will certainly warrant repeat watches and blow the developing bonces of more than a few, if not quite attaining classic status.
