Upon hearing that Inception was director Christopher Nolan’s first original project since his 2001 breakout hit Memento, I was struck by a feeling of surprise.  Even though the four films he made in between—Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight—were adaptations of previously produced works, Nolan managed to make them his own.  Reportedly, Nolan actually pitched Inception immediately following the completion of 2002’s Insomnia, but the writing of the script he intended to take “a couple of months,” ultimately took eight years.  Having seen the movie, the reason for this is clear.  Inception is one of the most complex scripts I’ve ever seen brought to the big screen.

To describe the plot seems almost futile.  Basically, Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Cobb, a former architect who now makes his living as a “dream thief.”  In the world of the film, the technology exists for people to invade the dreams of others and thus steal their deepest secrets.  Not surprisingly, this technology is prized among the rich and powerful who even go so far as hiring security details to patrol their dreams and keep their secrets safe.

Cobb has found himself in the employ of a powerful businessman who wants to use his skills to bring down the competition… not by stealing secrets, but by creating an idea of rebellion in the mind of his rival’s heir.  The process is called “inception” and it is achieved by planting an idea deep in a person’s subconscious, thus having them fully believe it is their own idea when they awake.  Everyone says it is impossible, but not Cobb.  He knows it is possible, because he has done it.  His previous inception is the reason he now cannot return home to the States and he hopes this latest effort will create an opportunity for him to once again see his children’s faces.

That basic plot is not too complex, but the execution of it is off the charts.  In order for the inception process to succeed, the dream thieves must go three levels deep into the subject’s subconscious: a dream within a dream within a dream.  Each level serves as its own location, but the characters in the lowest level still exist in the upper two, asleep, and whatever happens in those layers is reflected in the deeper layer.  Thus, a character navigating a hotel hallway on a lower level may find his world literally rocked when the van he’s sleeping in on the upper level rolls.

Time is also a factor that contributes to the complexity.  What is five minutes in the real world is an hour in the dream world, and what is an hour in that dream world may be an entire week in the dream within that dream.  That may not be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that one specific event must be timed perfectly across all three dream levels for the dreamers to wake up safely back in the real world.

Inception may be a challenge for audiences, but that is a good thing.  In a time when it seems like every movie is a copy of another, Inception is refreshing.  Few movies nowadays have me trying to wrap my mind around them for days after a viewing.  In fact, most of today’s movies are virtually forgotten about before I even get to the parking garage.

Despite the movie’s originality, there is at least one obvious comparison.  As most of the action takes place in the dream world where the rules of the real world can be twisted or dropped altogether, it is much like the world Neo navigated in 1999’s The Matrix.  Nowhere is this comparison more appropriate than a clever zero-gravity action scene.

Nolan fills his dream world with likeable anti-heroes.  Often, sci-fi action movies are as good as their villain—see Nolan’s The Dark Knight—but there aren’t really any villains in Inception.  The only bad guys are a faceless security force patrolling the dreams of the mark.  Even the mark, played by Nolan veteran Cillian Murphy, is a somewhat sympathetic character.  DiCaprio brings heart and brains to the role of Cobb and he’s flanked by a very talented list of actors including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, and the always reliable Michael Caine.  Marion Cotillard and Tom Hardy are the standouts, he the witty British forger and she the dangerous ex-wife still haunting Cobb’s dreams.

Inception has been billed by many as the movie that could save an underperforming summer season and by my account—and most of those who have already seen it—it doesn’t disappoint.  Only time will tell if the confounded storyline will keep it from becoming the blockbuster it should be, but that could also inspire many to want to experience it multiple times.  Few movies nowadays can keep their audience on the edge of their seats guessing and Inception does so all the way up until the very last shot.

Inception is rated PG-13 for “sequences of violence and action throughout.” There is a lot of intense violence throughout the movie, but nothing really to the point that it might turn audiences off.

Courtesy of a local publicist, Jeff attended a promotional screening of Inception.