Inception| 2010
Genre: Sci-Fi
Director: Christopher Nolan
Author : Srivathsa
Synopsis: Arguably Nolan’s best work yet and one of the year’s best.
Christopher Nolan commenced his profession with an insane short “Doodlebug”. “Following”,
the neo noir followed it up. But it was the labyrinth -fabricated “Memento” that
brought him into light. Al Pacino starrer “Insomnia” was a remake, tremendously
directed. Nolan then redefined super heroism, with his new Batman franchise – “Batman
begins” which was illustrious and flamboyant. The over plotted, yet under rated
–“The Prestige” followed subsequently. Nolan rolled up his fists for one of the
most critically raved super hero films –“The Dark Knight”, which worked on many
levels. Now, he is back with his most ambitious project – “Inception”.
“Inception” is an idea. As Nolan calls it, the movie itself is a resilient
parasite. It involves much more intricacy than any run of the mill summer block
buster and also features no twaddle direction. “Inception” never reaches the unblemished
stance of Kubrick’s “2001: A Space odyssey”, it very well reaches the levels of
“Blade Runner”. Only here the alter dystopian world lies within the dreams and subconscious
levels of our mind.
“Inception” stars Leonardo Di Caprio who plays Dom Cobb (Cobb is also the name of
the protagonist, in Nolan’s feature debut “Following”). He is a thief, in a new
genre of robbery. He steals ideas. Now, this isn’t going to be a spoiler, but I
cannot stop myself from saying that the movie features the heist theme, for the
inception of idea into some one’s mind by Cobb’s team. The team has the “Juno” girl,
Ellen Page, “500 Days of Summer” boy, “Joseph Gordon Levitt” and others.
More, than the plot, it’s the brawny piece of film making that impressed me. Nolan
doesn’t lose his sense anywhere. He knows, it’s multifaceted, and he might have
to answer a lot of questions. He isn’t concerned about the questions, but sticks
on to what he thinks could be made into an exciting and ideal movie. He succeeds,
well enough.
The production design deserves praise. The visuals are startling. The cityscapes
that, stretch and move, defying physics, the ultra slo mo/high resolution scenes
and gravity defying stunts provoke immense visual contentment. It also involves
breathtaking cinematography as in “The Dark Knight”. It a dream within a dream within
a dream and Nolan makes sure, the audience comprehend every bit of it. The film
also fashions, terrifically written script complemented with decent dialogues.
But there are questions, that arise, like how could dreams be so organized, so time
bound , structured and so much space oriented (even when gravity defying) ? And
exact time conversions between dreams and real life? I don’t care. All I needed
was an entertainer, paying whole respect to the art and also to the thinking areas
of our brain. It’s a science fiction, etched out perfectly well and directed with
full audacity.
“Inception” is arguably Nolan’s best. It also lets block buster movie makers like
Michael Bay realize that relying just on CGI work and ordinary script doesn’t work,
but a pitch perfect direction is very much requisite to satisfy the intellectual
part of the audience. “Inception”, doesn’t pretend to be brainy, but it is equally
not to. All it does is gives us two and half hours of a visual experience combined
with radiant direction. I would recommend not missing “Inception” in the halls,
for you don’t see movies with such huge ambition, come along every time.