Inception: Best Fare of the Summer

The blockbuster of the summer Christopher Nolan’s Inception has grossed $486M worldwide for Warner Bros, while only costing the studio $160M.  All in all, the gamble paid off.  Should we be congratulating WB for going out on a limb in this economy and have the guts to produce something that wasn’t a third or fourth film in a  tired franchise?  The other studios have been playing it safe, so why shouldn’t they?  Humans are risk averse and that includes consumers who don’t like the idea of forking over more than $10/person for a movie they might not enjoy, particularly when movie night might not roll around again soon with everyone’s belts still clasped at that too tight notch.  But what exactly was the gamble?  Nolan’s last three films have been highly profitable, with The Dark Knight grossing $1B worldwide.  The fact that the lead is played Leonardo DiCaprio is alone enough to get butts in seats.  With a trailer promising a film that’s action packed competing against films like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, it was a recipe for success, even if the plot was “mind-bendy.”

The film itself is extremely entertaining.  Just enough to make you think and keep your mind occupied,  the film is also constantly in motion.  Despite it’s 148 minute runtime, the entire film is so engrossing you just might forget about that popcorn you splurged for.  Beautifully shot, and pulsing with Hans Zimmer’s sonorous soundtrack, Inception is sensually awesome to consume.  In Cobb’s (DiCaprio) world, corporate espionage takes place in the mind, thanks to a U.S. military program to develop “shared dreaming.”  The young widower and corporate spy wants desperately to return to his small children, but his guilt over his wife’s death is ripping at the fabric of his consciousness, threatening to completely tear away his grasp on reality and his control of his dreams.  His hopes rest on one last big job that will buy him the right to return home to his family.  With a cast of experts he will attempt the impossible: inception, or the planting of a thought in the mind of the target without his detecting its foreignness.  As the team attempts to plan this seed with a complicated strategy involving multiple levels of dreaming, the viewer is completely caught up in the “science” and “art” of constructing and controlling dreams.  As a work of fiction, we accept the premises, but it begs an interesting question at the end of the film, when your mind begins to sort out what was “real” and what was a “dream.”  None of it’s real of course, which is sort of the point.  We allow ourselves to accept these elaborately constructed dream worlds, as long they end after two hours or so, we know, that is not real.  When you walk out of the theater and into the street, you know that reality has recommenced.  But how often have you simply wished you could disappear into that world and just never come out?  Who’s to say you can’t choose your own reality? 

Overall, there’s plenty of food for thought in the film, but never once did the philosophy get in the way of the plot.  Highly entertaining, visually stunning, and thought-provoking, what more can you ask from a Hollywood blockbuster?  So skip your Starbucks for a week and check it out in the theater, if just visually and musically, it demands a big-screen experience.

Check out these links for some interesting Inception info:
"Why intriguing 'Inception' is the Hollywood exception" - Christian Sicence Monitor
Inception soundtrack created entirely from Edith Piaf song - The Guardian