So here we are in 2010 and finally there's a great movie to watch. Ever since seeing Antichrist, now one of my favorite movies of all time, I seemed to have had nothing to look forward to. That was until I saw the trailers for Christopher Nolan's Inception. I purposely didn't follow it too closely, only knowing it involved dream sequences.
Inception is incredibly complex yet not pretentious in any shape or form. Not at one point are you totally lost, but rather you're trying to wrap your mind around the entire idea, while still maintaining to enjoy what's on the screen.
The movie's depth is unbelievable. The moods of the film shift seamlessly, keeping you on edge one second with intense action, then shifting to mindfuckery, then shifting to beautiful melancholic sequences, which are actually reminiscent to Leonardo DiCaprio's visions in his more recent Shutter Island, another film that's secured him into one of my new favorite actors. It's almost like the movie itself jumps from three layers of dreams within one on purpose. Genius.
Being a huge fan of The Fountain, an incredibly under-looked Daren Aronofsky film, I am immensely fond of gorgeous and rather depressing scenes of memory and remorse. Not until I saw Inception has a movie come close to capturing that sadness that Aronosfky did such a good job of portraying.
This movie is also incredibly smart. It forces you to grasp and understand so much information rather quickly as you're watching. If you're caught daydreaming at any point during this movie, there's a good chance that one small, or even big aspect of this movie could make no sense whatsoever.
What I love most about the film is although it's ridiculously far fetched, the almost metaphorical similarities with these futuristic dream sequences with real life dreams are amazing. Nolan's idea of an elevator of memories is one of the most brilliant ideas I've ever seen. 11 'stories' and a basement of absolute painstakingly, relentless REGRET. We all have dreams of memories and things we miss, which are often times tied in with regret. We can't seem to get rid of them. It's almost as if our subconscious locks those things in our mind only for our dreams. And we keep revisiting them. On accident. Only Don Cobb is so good at what he does, he designs these memories on purpose just to drive himself and his subconscious more insane. I LOVE IT.
Other than tie-ins with the dreams in the movie and the dreams of our reality, the movie is pretty literal, therefore, in the end no one should be totally confused. There are a few very small aspects of the film that could be metaphorical that others may think to be literal. Like any great film, there's room for speculation and theories for things left open and I'm glad for that.
Overall, once the movie ended, I was immediately shocked at how good it was but at the same time, I was confused about a few things. It took me some hours and more for the movie to fully sink in and for everything little by little to make so much sense. The reason is that there are so many layers and ideas going on in the movie that there's a good chance that you can become more attached to or distracted by one more-so than the others. Once the movie gets stuck in your head, which is inevitable, all the aspects of the film start to unfold for you in great detail. Either way, it's definitely a movie that deserves multiple viewings, and I'm sure it will be even more rewarding watching it for a second time.
I would go see it again right now if movies weren't so goddamn expensive.
At this point in time, Inception is the movie of the year.
