"Inception" Brilliant Concept, Confusing Execution

[Carl M. Zapffe]

http://www.catsmeowmoviecritic.com/id356.html

"INCEPTION"('10)...B ...  An alternate universe involving the exploration  of the various levels of a person's dream state for nefarious reasons is explored in this extraordinarily complex tale directed by Christopher Nolan from a screenplay which he authored. While wildly inventive, this movie has a story that is so challenging that it trips all over itself. At some point during my watching this film my opinion of it degraded from great admiration to annoyance for a movie that is little more than a wildly pretentious mind game composed of too many gee whiz special effects just because they can be done.

Although brilliant in concept and beautifully executed from a cinematic standpoint, this is a perfect example of a movie that is so complicated that it was nearly impossible to sit back in the theater and enjoy it. It finally got to the point where I gave up, so I merely viewed it as cinematic eye candy. I later went to some web sites to read a synopsis just for the personal satisfaction of finally understanding it, but by then I really didn't care. The emotional impact, if there had been one, was long lost. 

One critic remarked that he had to see the movie three times to understand it. Three times? I'm sorry, but I won't buy this, and I can't buy this. If a story can't largely be understood after a single viewing, then the movie wasn't well done or the story wasn't well told. If I see a movie a second or a third time, it is because I enjoyed it so much the first time that I wanted to see it again to recapture that enjoyment. Please don't con me into buying a second or a third movie ticket in this day and age when they cost in excess of ten dollars just so I can have the satisfaction of finally understanding what a movie is all about. 

Limitless production values and all of the special effects that technology can offer won't make a better movie if the story is flawed to begin with. This is especially the case where alternate realities are explored. The construct of the story has to be stated, and then the rules have to be followed. "Inception" commits the cardinal sin of starting in the middle of a first construct (dream state) and then jumping into a second construct before I had even figured out what the rules were for the first. Thereafter I was always behind the eight ball and left in the position of constantly playing catchup. Was I watching a mind game or being part of one?  

One of the best movies for introducing an alternate universe is "The Matrix." In the first movie after the strangely disturbing opening credits and the beginning of an intriguing story line, Neo finally gets to meet Morpheus, who then sits Neo down and tells him, and us in the audience, what this new reality is all about. During "Inception," I needed a "blue pill" of my own to explain it, but by the end what I really wanted was a red pill so that I could return to my own reality, thank you very much.

Author and director Christopher Nolan must be attracted to mentally challenging movies like this with the character or characters in his movies equally challenged by being placed in fish out of water life experiences. Examples include memory loss in the 2000 movie, "Memento," sleep deprivation in the 2002 movie, "Insomnia," and magician deception in the 2006 movie, "The Prestige." "Inception" may have garnered a higher rating on the IMDB list of the Top 250 Movies of All Time, but in my opinion it is a less successful movie than those earlier ones. 

 

The construct of this film is that the human mind can be invaded while a person is in a dream state and useful information can be extracted during these moments of great vulnerability. This is the illicit profession of Don Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio), for he is an expert at extracting information, usually corporate or government secrets, from other people. 

While one of the best at this form of illegal corporate espionage, Cobb's experiences haven't always turned out well. He has a warrant out for his arrest in the United States, so he remains a fugitive separated from his two beloved children back home in the States. In some of his own dream sequences he goes back to his marriage with Mal (Marion Cotillard), but we learn that something tragic had happened and it appears that she may be dead.

Saito (Ken Watanabe), a corrupt and powerful Japanese businessman, approaches Cobb and challenges him not to extract information, but to plant information, called inception, in the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the son and heir of industrialist Maurice Fischer (Peter Postlethwaite). Upon the death of his ailing father, Saito wants Cobb to plant the germ of an idea into Robert's subconscious to break his business empire into two pieces, which will allow Saito to buy the piece that he desires. 

The hook for Cobb in this very dangerous mission is that he will pull the strings necessary to get the United States to drop the warrant for his arrest so that he can finally go home and be a father to his two young children. The danger is that the inception method involves drilling down into the third level of a person's subconscious, and this can have disastrous consequences as Cobb well knows from personal experience. Ellen Page ("Juno") costars as Ariadne, his assistant. 148 minutes and rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout.

Carl M. Zapffe,

The Cat's Meow Movie Critic

http://www.catsmeowmoviecritic.com