Movie: Inception
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Michael Caine
There are times when you have to pinch yourself to check whether you are dreaming or not but it makes no sense when you see it being done on screen while you doing the same thing to yourself while watching it! In a season of remakes, prequels, sequels, adaptations, it is truly hard to find an original story. Only a man of Christopher Nolan's calibre can take such a simple unreality and make it into a convoluted, realistic plot full of surprises that literally blows your mind.
Nolan treads on the human subconscious and toys with the viewer until the end of the movie and it is no surprise that it took Nolan 10 years to draft the screenplay.
Dream plot
The plot is as simple as it goes: Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), an extractor specialising in corporate espionage making him a fugitive on the run, is hired by a Japanese corporate honcho Saito (Ken Watanabe). Saito wants to bring down a rival empire headed by Robert Fisher (Cillian Murphy), son of a late rival, by making Dom plant an idea (inception and not extraction) inside Fisher's mind in exchange for Dom's return to his country to get back to his children.
Dom goes about assembling a team consisting of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), an assistant and confidante; Eames (Tom Hardy), a forger who can change his identity within a dream; Ariadne (Ellen Page), a brilliant architect who visualises and creates the environment of the dreams; and Yusuf (Dileep Rao) a chemist. Marion Cotillard plays the alluring Mal, Dom's deceased wife who keeps popping up throughout and finally Michael Caine appears as the wise old man Miles, Dom's father-in-law.
The rules of inception are quite simple. You die in a dream then you wake up in reality, if you sense pain then you sense the same in reality. The planting process goes so deep into the mind, layer by layer that the audience is left guessing for most part of the movie. Time span goes on increasing as you delve further and further into the mind. Such as a minute in reality is 20 minutes in the next layer and an hour in the next.
Excellent filmmaking
“Matrix”-like action sequences coupled with impeccable cinematography makes it a visual treat. Visual effects are quite stunning and play a huge role in aiding the screenplay. The scene wherein Paris folds itself will be engraved in our minds for a long time. The most satisfying aspect of the movie is that there is no specific significance given to a character and all the characters play very important roles keeping the viewers guessing.
Leonardo DiCaprio has matured as an actor and is halfway in his quest to super-stardom. Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Ellen Page fit the bill whereas seasoned actors like Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard portray their characters to near perfection. Tom Hardy deserves a mention for his comic-timing in a mind-bending genre. Michael Caine's appearance, though short in screen-time, plays the cleverest role of them all. The background score by Hans Zimmer is haunting and apt. Close to near perfection in all departments of filmmaking, the movie makes you ask for more. No words can describe this man who has given us “Memento”, “The Dark Knight” and now “Inception”. Christopher Nolan has just given cinema its Theory of Relativity. Dream on!
Bottomline: Chris Nolan — Best director ever. Period!
Varun S., III Year, B.Tech IT, SRM University
