MyRating: YYYYY + A CROWNDirector & Writer: Christopher Nolan
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Dileep Rao, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action throughout
Dom Cobb (DiCaprio) is an extractor, a professional thief who has a very rare skill in stealing secret information from people's dreams. But he is so lost in his missions as he has to pay a big cost that caused him not be able to come home to his family he loved. When a tourist rich businessman, Saito (Watanabe), offers Cobb a mission to infiltrate into the dream of his rival young businessman, Robert Fischer (Murphy) with an exchange for Cobb to get his old life back, Cobb accepts the mission. But this time, the mission is not to steal something from other people's dream, but he has to implant an idea into the target's unconcious mind, and made it as if the idea comes from the target himself. It is called the Inception.
To execute his mission, Cobb gathers a team of experts for this dangerous job, that consists of Arthur (Gordon-Levitt), his long time espionage partner, Ariadne (Page), a young architect who is very talented in creating settings and spaces in dreams, Eames (Hardy), a forger who is the master of disguise, and Yusuf (Rao), a chemist. Together with Saito, they start their heist mission into the target's dream. But they find out that the target is somehow guarded by lots of killer bodyguards in his dream, and they soon turn to become the target themselves. To add the complication, Cobb's past memories of his beautiful wife, Mal (Cottilard), keeps infiltrate into his dream that may jeopardize their mission and shatter Cobb's dream forever.
Once in every few years, usually there will be a movie that is so amazingly and amusingly made that will leave me breathless while watching it. The movie could be so unpredictably and creatively written that makes me wish that I was the writer. And Inception is one of those movies, that comes only once in every few years. And for this, I have to bow my head for Christopher Nolan, who has written such a brilliant, original and wonderful story. This is absolutely a piece of a genius. And Nolan is the genius. The story is captivating, but complex in a clever way, that if you lose your focus for a few seconds, especially in the first half, you may possibly lost in the labyrinth and will not really understand what is happening. You might altogether lost in the dream.
The plot was very well written, so even though the story may complicate your mind and challenge you to think hard, it will slowly guide you and leave your mouth open when you start to realize the logic and the linkage between the plots. The idea of a dream inside a dream (inside a dream of a dream) and the rules of how to survive the dreams was amazing and clever. Actually, Nolan's brilliant ideas struck me again and again throughout the movie. And he likes to tell us in such a way that bends our minds.
Nolan's direction was also superb, adding to his already sophisticated short resume of his high critically acclaimed movies, such as Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Prestige (2006) and The Dark Knight (2008). The cinematography of this movie was beautiful. The bending world that turned upside down was one interesting scene, after years of stagnation of new and original ideas in Hollywood. The special effects were awesome. And the actions were solid, with quite a lot of actions with well paced tension. The most memorable one will be the scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt fighting the enemies in a spinning corridor, while running and flying with anti-gravity. That scene was just breathtaking and I believe it has set another iconic action moment in the movie history. You will soon see it becomes a parody elsewhere. The story also has a touching part, when telling the love story between Cobb and his wife. It gave the heart and emotions to the movie. And every explanation that you get in explaining the reasons, will surprise you.
Now, regarding the cast. It was a stellar ensemble of casts. All the actors were doing a very good job. Leonardo DiCaprio was again in his another great role. Not because I like him (which I do), but his acting was just simply excited and solid to watch. And he is so good in choosing the roles that fits him, in his right timing, and this role was one of it. The other actors were also in good forms, especially Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page and Marion Cottilard, who gave strong performances. Almost all of the casts shine in their roles in this rock solid movie.
To give a perfect closing to the extraordinary journey through the story, this movie gave us a perfect ending. It will make you gasp. Indeed the whole theater, where I watched this movie, did gasp when seeing the very final scene. I think it was a brilliant ending for a brilliant story. Again, one of the best ending in the movie history, that will become a subject of debate for years to come. This movie is a great achievement and a MASTERPIECE. Thanks to Nolan. And it surely will become a classic. I was totally blown away by what I've seen. What a great ride! What a satisfaction! What a movie! (MJ)
