Inception: Dream Weaver
Warner Bros
2010
“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.” - T. E. Lawrence
Imagine the kind of film that would equally engage both M.C. Escher and Sigmund Freud with excitement. Something so visually captivating and subconsciously interesting that any viewer might just fall short of having their mind blown. Something you could talk about in a collegiate philosophy class, yet also geek-out with your sci-fi buddies on a Friday night. That barely skims the surface of Inception. I will not be surprised if you start to hear people say it is their favorite movie of all time. It’s impossible construction makes it one of the most interesting films I think I’ve ever seen.
Dom Cobb is an accomplished thief, known as an extractor, specializing in the navigation through subconscious dreams. Secret information and ideas in your mind can be attacked when you are sleeping when your mind is most vulnerable. Security teams are even needed for protection. You also have to navigate around your own subconscious fears, which seem to show up and wreak a little havoc now and then. Cobb’s team includes an organizer, a forger, an architect, a chemist, and a tourist. These titles represent key players in an elaborate corporate espionage heist. However, this heist is a little different than most perfect crimes. They actually have to pull off the reverse. Instead of stealing an idea, they must actually plant an idea. The “inception” of that idea is much harder than it sounds and takes careful time and planning. And time in the dream world is much longer than time in the real world. Time even compounds exponentially when you dream within a dream.
This is one of those films people will be asking you to talk about with them. Not just to say how great it was, but to talk about the idea of it all and explain the logical sequence of things. There are, at times, simultaneous characters in simultaneous dreams doing things that affect other circumstances in parallel time compounded dreams. Yea, exactly. I found myself pondering the nature of the progression of it all as I was watching, but that’s part of what makes it fun. This film just has that much depth in regards to dreams like awaking at the moment of just being shot or falling. It just encourages conversation, creativity, and is just flat-out thought provoking. It’s a completely original idea with a complex and twisting plot line that is a blast to follow. I don’t know who implanted this genius idea in Christopher Nolan’s mind, but I’m glad they did.
Beyond the thought of it all, it’s stylized with electronically haunting soundtrack that hits you in chest cavity, ringing your subconscious awake as you get lost in the special effects. It’s filled with some of the best visuals of ingenuity this side of the original Matrix, most of it done physically and practically in-camera. During one scene in a hotel where gravity is defied and twisted, I could hear other people in the audience say, “How did they do that,” understanding it wasn’t some CG conglomerate of smoke and mirrors. That’s because the filmmakers understand that the big effects aren’t meant to blow your mind, the plot of the story is, and that’s just what it does.
I could on and on about this film and I don’t have anything negative to say about it. I actually may be bold enough to admit that this movie is worth the full evening price at the local theater. As a mater of fact, I might just go back to see it again today. Seriously, stop what you are doing and see this movie … before you wake up.
Dreams frequently struggle to maintain stability.
