Inception (Nolan, 2010)

This review contains major spoilers.

Inception (Christopher Nolan, 2010)

I think this film fully illustrates that Christopher Nolan is better at writing ideas than he is actual screenplays. Truthfully, this probably should have been a mini-series because there is a ton of stuff packed into the two and a half hour runtime. First, I’m of the opinion it’s better to go into this movie knowing nothing, so stop reading if you haven’t seen this and plan to.

Nolan has created a world inside of people’s dreams that abides by a bunch of rules. The problem is that this story is so elaborate that almost a full hour is spent with characters (many of whom are literaly just pawns in the plot) explaining to ‘each other’ (the audience) how this whole thing works. And just when you think you have everything figured out, something doesn’t go as planned and even more is being explained. But the rules in Nolan’s world are so consistent, I couldn’t help but be drawn in and mostly unfrustrated despite the constant onslaught of exposition.

Something I was not expecting was the film’s main relationship between DiCaprio’s character and his deceased wife. There was potential for a potent lost love storyline full of all sorts of dream/flashback/memory goodies but this could have only realized its full potential if the film had been a lot longer. What we get works more as a plot device, though a good one. But as more and more is revealed, and we learn the pain of losing his wife was accidentally self-inflicted, I couldn’t help but feel for him. There’s a lot of interesting stuff here, but a lot of flaws. Still, it’s one of the better blockbusters I’ve seen in a while.  8/10