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Christopher Nolan
is on a hot streak. The British-born director of ‘Memento’, ‘The
Prestige’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ has arguably delivered his piece de
resistance with Inception. In between those movies he managed to
squeeze in the not-too-shabby ‘Insomnia’ and ‘Batman Begins’. Part of
the paradox of Inception is that it could so easily have gone very
wrong – or maybe it did and we are just not smart enough to realise
either way.

Intellectual
thrillers have the capacity to be either spectacularly brilliant or
mind-numbingly dull. Inception is mind-numbing alright but only because
the viewer spends the entire running time with a fixed frown of
concentration. You know a movie is rich in intellectual property when a
high-powered car chase comes as a welcome attention break. A ten-year
labour of love, it is clear that the finished product is as close to
the director’s imagination as possible.

On the face of it,
Inception plays like a typical heist movie. Leonardo DiCaprio, plays
Cobb, an international thief who assembles a motley crew of
personalities. All the generic elements are in place: the anti-hero,
the newbie, the lovable rogue, the brains of the bunch, the girl and of
course explosions – lots of them. The stereotypes, however, end there.
Cobb’s team specialises in hacking into people’s minds rather than
their bank accounts. The group is trained in entering into the
subconscious of their targets and extracting information stored therein
– the pin code to your ATM card for example.

When Cobb meets
Saito (Ken Watanabe), a gruff businessman who is himself a victim of a
dream invasion, he is coerced into reversing the process – incepting an
idea into a target’s head. The target in this case is Robert Fischer, a
young business rival played by Cillian Murphy, another cast member that
is part of the ‘Batman Begins’ brigade (Watanabe and Michael Caine
being the others).

The business of
implanting an idea is a major undertaking for Cobb and his gang.
Firstly they must find a new ‘architect’ someone who designs the dream
worlds that are supplanted into their mark’s subconscious. Secondly no
one has exactly done this type of thing before. Thirdly, and perhaps
most imminently dangerous, is the fact that Cobb’s wife, Mal (Marion
Cotillard) has the horrible habit of showing up at less than ideal
times within dreams – often brandishing a weapon. To further complicate
matters she happens to have been dead for a few years.

Confused yet? Well
you needn’t be. The plot itself is a bit of a red herring and
occasionally takes a back seat in a movie that is stashed with smoke
and mirrors. Nothing is as it seems. The plot is leaky in places but
the holes are masterfully plugged by Nolan’s sheer bravado. It’s almost
as if he is telling the audience: “Forget the plot for a minute, just
look what I can do.” And boy does he do a lot. He constantly plays with
the dichotomy of the real and unreal. Are they sleeping or are they
awake? Are they having a dream within a dream?

Dreams in movies
are hardly a novel concept – David Lynch has made a career out of it –
but Nolan creates just about the right balance of action, philosophy
and humour to make this both thought provoking and entertaining. Sadly
the one thing lacking from the mix is a greater investment in
characterization. Aside from Cobb, all the other characters are fairly
one-dimensional. It is left to DiCaprio to throw all the emotional
punches in the movie and to be fair, the final result is a knockout.
After the equally absorbing ‘Shutter Island’ this performance is
DiCaprio’s second Oscar-worthy role of the year. He has often laboured
under the leading man tag but we are now witnessing a bonafide star at
the top of his game.

Cotillard, as his
on-screen wife, plays off him extremely well and there is something
genuinely haunting about her character. Her fleeting appearances set
the pulses racing through just the power of her facial expressions.

The integrity of
their relationship, whilst central to the movie, is one of many things
that the audience is forced to repeatedly question. There is a real
emotion at its core and fortunately manages to provide enough of an
emotional pull to care about the protagonist. It’s all well and good
having beautifully constructed sets with cascading cities and inverted
boulevards but if there is no emotional pull, a movie can die a quick
death. Inception’s appeal is that amidst all the special effects, you
continue to care about DiCaprio and Cotillard’s characters.

When Nolan announced himself to the world with the equally mesmeric
‘Memento’, people wondered how he could possibly top that. Ten years
later, and with a body of impressive work already under his belt, Nolan
has not only equaled his cinematic debut, he has bettered it.