Perception of Inception

Dom (DiCaprio) with totem

 Dreams are the focal point of this original and thought provoking tale in which Extractors take an idea, considered most valuable and resilient thing in the world from the one place where humans are most vulnerable, their dreams. The most skilled Extractor Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is coerced by a businessman, Saito played by Ken Watanabe in planting an idea into the mind of a rival businessman’s heir (Cillian Murphy). Should Cobb succeed in this impossible task of inception then his own dream can come true, something which he can’t achieve in reality and so along with his fellow Extractor Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) assembles a team comprising of an Architect (Ellen Page), a forger (Tom Hardy) and a chemist (Dileep Rao).

Writer, Director and Producer Christopher Nolan has created an intriguing and entertaining story filled with questions of what is real and what is a dream and that’s reinforced through clever narrative. It’s this various narrative structures that leaves audiences to question what narrative they’re seeing at several points in the film (whether it is dream or reality). It comes into question more as Cobb explains the nature of dreams to his new dream architect Ariadne. While there are one or two instances (which I still haven’t really figured out even after seeing the film twice) where dream and reality seems blurred, Nolan gives the audience plenty of cues to help them along but still leaving plenty of ambiguity in order to allow the audience to draw their own conclusions.

Like Nolan’s last film The Dark Knight, Inception’s action scenes are surprisingly light on CG elements instead relying on physical effects to achieve a similar effect. One the most visually stunning effects is the hotel sequence which see’s Arthur literally undertaking a gravity defying mission to help the team to wake up.

Inception is a really engaging film, it challenges audiences who at this time of year tend to check their brains in at the door to watch films to pick them up again and pay attention.