15 March 2013
Inception (2010)
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Based on Book: no
- Cast: Leonardo du Caprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlewaite, Lucas Haas, Michael Caine
- Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
- Leonardo di Caprio: You know
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Third Rock from the Sun, The Dark Knight Rises, The Lookout, Miracle at St. Anna, Brick, 10 Things I Hate About You
- Ellen Page: Smart People, Juno
- Tom Hardy: The Dark Knight Rises (oops, that’s the one I haven’t seen yet), Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy, Sweeney Todd
- Ken Watanaba: Batman Begins
- Cillian Murphy: The Dark Knight, 28 Days Later
- Tom Berenger: The Gingerbread Man, Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon, Eddie and the Cruisers
- Marion Cotillard: Nine, La vie en rose, Public Enemies, A Good Year
- Pete Postlewaite – Brassed Off, The Constant Gardener, The Shipping News, Romeo and Juliet, The Last Mohican, Hamlet
- Lucas Haas: The Darwin Awards, Brick, Breakfast of Champions, Witness
- Michael Caine: you know
- Why bought: DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, sounded interesting, good reviews
- Seen: November 17, 2012
Don’t ask me to tell the story of this film. It was confusing from start to finish. The basic story is that this team goes into people’s dreams to steal or implant ideas and they could go to different levels of dreams within dreams and memories and stuff like that. To put it mildly it took a lot of concentration to figure out if they were in a dream – and whose dream – or in reality. After awhile it became sort of clear that if there was a lot of running and shooting it was a dream.
So I’m glad we didn’t watch this on a Friday night after a glass of whiskey. I needed all – and I mean all – my wits about me to keep up as much as I did, which was mostly. I think.
It was worth the effort. The concept is interesting, the different layers of consciousness, subconsciousness, memories, emotions – so much is being learned about how the mind works and this movie makes good use of this new knowledge. It was really interesting. The acting was good – how could it not be with that cast. I didn’t buy it for Ellen Page’s sake because I didn’t recognize her name but I recognized her. She’s good! As were they all. I’ve tried to resist DiCaprio for years because I really don’t see him as the heartthrob he was supposed to be but I can’t deny that his acting is always impeccable. And I’ve loved Joseph G-L since Third Rock.
So even if I never really figured out why they were suddenly running around in the snowy Alps (or wherever) skiing and snowmobiling and shooting etc. – and what really happened to the wife? I mean is she dead so her body is somewhere in the real world, buried? Or is she sleeping somewhere, lost, stuck, in her dream? Even if.
This is a movie that must be seen several times I think. After this viewing:
3* of 5. Next time probably more.
Recently revisited this one. Still impressive. Still confusing. On the whole, my favourite Nolan flick from his megalomaniac phase in the last two decades or so. Overdoing it seems to be a perennial problem with him. One dream with the dream less would have improved "Inception". As for the wife, according to my theory, she commited suicide to wake up, only she confused reality with a dream - and died, of course. Leo's character was in danger of the same dream/reality confusion, for he was spending too much time in his dreams; the only way to be with her, but as he admitted in the end, in a rather touching scene, unsatisfactory because he could never really recreate all of her complexity in his dreams. Something like that. I think. Why Leo's character was ever accused of murdering his wife I could never understand.
ReplyDeleteReading your interesting comment I realise that I don't remember anything about this film other than that I didn't understand anything and that I liked it! Definitely time to see it again. I think it was actually the first film, or at least one of the first, that I reviewed on this blog!
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