Inception

If I were to explain the complete plot of Inception, director, writer and co-producer Christopher Nolan’s new sci-fi caper film, I’d take up too much time and confuse the living daylights out of my readers. So instead, I’ll parse it down in a few paragraphs.

The “heroes” of this film are Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), two thieves who steal ideas from people’s dreams. One day, businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) proposes a unique idea: rather than swipe an idea from someone’s mind, they instead give someone a bright idea. This is the Inception of the title.

The plan is to give corporate heir Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) an incentive that would cause his late father’s corporation to disintegrate. The heroes assemble their team and scam their way into Fischer’s trust so easily. But the specter of Cobb’s dead wife (Marion Cotillard) threatens to derail everything.

The film stylistically resembles Nolan’s two Batman features, especially with its cinematographer Wally Pfister filming this one. The best effects have to be either the “Shifting dream city” or the revolving hallway. The snowy fortress visited in the last part is an amazing locale. In short, as far as style goes, Inception is outstanding.

This is a summer film where effects play second fiddle to the story. It’s quite a complicated storyline that is most likely meant to make sense the more you think of it. The same can probably said about any dream, which is likely the point of this film.

Overall, Inception’s complexities help make this summer film quite a memorable one. This is the kind of films that should be coming out this summer; if Christopher Nolan keeps this up, then the inevitable third Batman feature will linger in the pop-cultural osmosis as much as this film.