CHRISTOPHER Nolan’s classy, ambitious, full-of-ideas Inception reminds again of the sheer fun to be had diving head first into the dreamworld of the movies.
Edith Piaf’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien plays at several crucial moments but a perfect number – although too “on the nose” for Nolan, no doubt – would have been a particular hit by the Big O ...
“In dreams, I walk with you ... in dreams, I talk to you ... in dreams you’re mine, all of the time ... We’re together, in dreams, in dreams ...”
In cinema, as in dreams, anything is possible.
Inception, boasting a superior cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, comes billed as a heavy-hitter in the brain box department, an “intelligent mind-bender” if you will.
“It makes Schrodinger’s Cat look like Garfield!” the billboards scream (Well, not quite, but you get the picture. They actually say: “Your mind is the scene of the crime,” which isn’t necessarily helpful).
Inception certainly qualifies as “intelligent”, if you accept the definition: “Having a high mental capacity.”
And it fits the definition of clever as: “Skilful, witty or original in character or construction”.
But don’t let any of that put you off.
It’s also pure comic book stuff, endearingly dumb and downright messy at times, its reach exceeding its grasp as its “high concept” dribbles away down the front of its perfectly-tailored duds (it always – ALWAYS – looks the part).
If you love movies, you’ll love Inception.
It’s by no means a typical summer blockbuster, and you might feel a bit queasy as you sense Nolan is setting out to wrong-foot you.
But then, as it works its magic in layers of dreams within dreams, movies within movies, it morphs into other worlds you will already be comfortable with.
There are echoes of The Matrix, The Usual Suspects, every “guys on a mission” or heist picture you’ve ever seen. It’s like a Michael Mann movie, or a Kubrick movie (there’s a 2001 bit). For much of the time it’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and/or Where Eagles Dare.
But what is it when it’s just being Inception?
DiCaprio is Cobb, a guy with a dark past, skilled at creating and manipulating dreams, able to hack inside other people’s heads to “extract” information.
But here’s the thing – an “inception” involves planting information, putting in rather than taking out. It’s never been done – well, maybe once. But no one seems to know if it really worked, or if it could work again.
Martin Scorsese (who once said: “Movies are really a kind of dream state,” and therefore knows this territory) directed DiCaprio in a very similar role in Shutter Island – Cobb, like Teddy Daniels, is caught between dreams and reality, cloaked in guilt, brooding over a lost love, never quite knowing when or if he is absolutely in control.
DiCaprio was good – very good – in the Scorsese picture. He is even better in Inception.
Marion Cotillard (who won an Oscar as Piaf, remember) is simply stunning as Cobb’s wife, Mal. Along with DiCaprio, as assured and watchable a screen actor as there is around right now, she helps give the film its vital emotional core.
And Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and British star Tom (Bronson) Hardy make huge impressions in roles that are in peril of drowning in impenetrable exposition but end up flying clear into the heady atmosphere when this picture really hits the heights.
Nolan’s The Dark Knight, his scintillating Batman movie, contained deep within its action-packed, beautifully-constructed whole the recurring question – how far will the good guys go to stop the bad guys? The echoes of rendition flights and Guantanamo were there for all to hear.
And the indelible image of Heath Ledger’s candy-coloured Joker torching a mountain of cash seems now to have foreshadowed the world financial crisis.
Inception might qualify as a sci-fi epic but is another film very much of its time, with identity crises and finance on its mind once again.
In a Nolan picture, a big, beautiful, sheer high-rise cityscape of a picture, it is inevitable that Cobb’s skills will be employed by military-industrial complex, high-end corporate types, willing to go that extra mile to gain an advantage over a rival.
Nolan sprinkles his own special stardust on this glistening landscape, this stimulating mindscape, and it works like a dream.
Michael Caine, now a Nolan regular, adds a touch of extra class with a brief but telling turn and Cillian Murphy, Pete Postlethwaite, Tom Berenger and Ken Watanabe all have time to make their mark.