More than eight years after director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento) first began writing the script, Inception storms into UK cinemas as one of the most innovative and compelling films of modern times.
Leonardo DiCaprio heads up a stellar cast as Dom Cobb, the leading player in the world of subconscious espionage, that is, the highly paid extraction of corporate secrets from the minds of sleeping company executives.
Cobb and his team, including newly recruited architecture student Ariadne (Ellen Page), are approached by businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) for a dangerous and difficult mission that involves the implantation of an idea, an ‘inception’, rather than the usual theft.
The promise of being able to return to his family is enough to convince Cobb, and the rest of the film plays out like an intense heist movie through multiple layers of the characters’ subconscious minds; made all the more perilous by the armed security in the mind of the target, and Cobb’s own uncontrollable projections.
That would be enough for most writers/directors, but the mysteries surrounding Cobb’s smouldering wife Mal (Oscar winner Marion Cotillard) intertwine perfectly with the main plot. Adding yet another level of intrigue and delivering a believable weight to Cobb’s fierce motivation and his trouble subconscious.
It is truly amazing that this concept has never really been done before, or at least not to anything like this standard; Keanu Reeves played the part of a human memory stick, storing data in his brain, in sci-fi flick Johnny Mnemonic.
But as quickly as that film springs to mind, it is just as quick to flop out of it.
Of course, The Matrix (Keanu again) was ground-breaking for the time, but it was the visual excitement, not so much the story, that made it so.
Inception has both the beauty and the brains to lift the often ‘scoffed-at’ sci-fi movie genre to a height that could persuade even the most ardent science-fiction hater.
The film carries over many of the attributes recognisable from Nolan’s most successful project to date, The Dark Knight, but that is by no means a negative point.
Sharp, dynamic cinematography, a contemporary orchestral score, incredible set design and a brilliant story have become hallmarks of Nolan films. Inception takes those elements and just soars.
A few familiar faces from The Dark Knight also make the transition; notably a cameo for Michael Caine as Cobb’s father-in-law and Cillian Murphy as the target, Fischer. However, not enough praise can go to the rest of the cast.
Gordon-Levitt and Page look set to define themselves as standout young actors of their generation; but it is DiCaprio who can seem to do no wrong, delivering every piece of dialogue with that trademark intensity and continuing a near unbroken run of brilliant performances in the last 7-8 years.
Inception is without doubt challenging. Those who wince at a plot which is any more complex than a ham sandwich should stay away; but for everyone else this is a rare treat.
A testing but hugely enjoyable film at a time when it so often feels like the movie industry thinks of the general public as brain-dead simpletons.
5 out of 5 stars