Inception review
With a wish-list cast, Christopher Nolan returns to Memento-like mind-messing territory with Inception, directing a Charlie Kaufman screenplay adapted from a 007 book written by Philip K. Dick… hold on a minute… he didn’t? He wrote this himself?! The direction is certainly impressive and the film’s visuals are a real treat (the fight scene in a gravity-bending hotel is one of many highlights) but it’s the story that is the juiciest mango.
Flimsy psychology abounds and there is some very convenient narrative Polyfilla, such as killing yourself in a dream to wake yourself up (nice) no longer being the case when that would just make things too easy. But the bigger picture, of entering dreams, and dreams within dreams, and dreams within dreams within dreams, to extract information and then, much trickier, to implant ideas, is truly compelling. In lesser hands it could very, very easily end up being a tangled mess but the film is lucid and avoids any major plot holes.
Nolan is using his power for good. He has taken a concept the likes of which have traditionally been found only in low budget sci-fi and transplanted it in to a high-octane, big budget mainstream movie, challenging the audience and demonstrating that blockbusters need not make concessions for morons.
16th Jul 2010 | Official site | On IMDb
