Science fiction is a difficult shrew to tame. While you want to create concepts that push the limits of understanding you don’t want to force the viewer so far that they can't relate in any way to the mosaic in front of them.
The trick is to layer ideas on top of a universal truth that we can all understand. If you have that foundation, that simple grain around which an elaborate concept can swell, you’ve got a memorable sci-fi.
Inception takes the dreamscape as its drumbeat and builds, for the most part, a rich and challenging sonata that can be enjoyed for its parts and whole equally. Writer/director Christopher Nolan (
Memento,
Batman Begins and
The Dark Knight) exploits the realm of impossible possibility that we slip into every night while we sleep and the results are breathtaking. It’s the same elemental space that made the original
Nightmare On Elm St so terrifying: we all dream, and though these dreams spring from our own subconscious, we have absolutely no control.
What makes this foundation so truly brilliant in the case of Inception, is that it carries equally well all the existential confusion you can handle and all the ground-pounding action you can bear. Yes, there are mind-bending ideas in this film, but there’s also action, and lots of it. Expect guns, explosions, fight scenes and some radical car chases.
This is not just the best sci-fi since
Solaris (except perhaps for Duncan Jones’
Moon and maybe
The Matrix if it had never been a trilogy), it’s possibly the best action/heist film since
Heat.
With the exception of Ellen Page in the role of The Architect, the cast is impeccable – Leonardo Di Caprio even manages to make you forget his performance in
Shutter Island. The music, as with
The Dark Knight, is so intrinsic to the film that it feels like an additional leading cast member; it interacts with the narrative in a way that few films ever do. We have legendary composer Hans Zimmer to thank for that.
Make no mistake this film is indulgent, but somehow it works. Perhaps that single universal truth upon which the film grows is strong enough to bear the weight of everything Nolan wants to pile on it. You certainly get the sense that as the writer/director he made very few compromises – he certainly made no concession when it came to simplifying the plot for the masses. Will everyone grasp the concepts? Maybe not. Fewer still will notice the smaller, more subtle ideas woven within them. But that should not put you off.
While this may not be a film everyone will comprehend it’s a film everyone should see.
Inception is dark, thrilling and bold, and most importantly, it will reach well beyond your highest expectations and wildest dreams.
More at
thevine.com.au.