Inception (Christopher Nolan 2010)
Posted on August 09 at 21.37, 2010 by Eric Mahleb
Word of mouth for Inception has been phenomenal. Everyone seems interested in this smart blockbuster, as if millions wanted the green light that it is finally ok to watch blockbusters without feeling guilty about it. After earning Warner Bros a nice bundle of cash with The Dark Knight (2008), Christopher Nolan, the extremely talented English director who also gave us Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), and The Prestige (2006), apparently received Carte Blanche to do the movie that he really wanted to make. In these rare cases, directors usually aim small, preferring to try their skill at more artsy fares and indulging in a longing to create films d’auteurs…
Nolan decided to go about it a different way. Memento to the power of 10. Cinema d’auteur on a large scale. Intelligent action. Smart blockbuster. But is it really all that? Kind of.
There is little doubt that Inception is a good movie. Possibly a very good one. But it is not the masterpiece that many have claimed. If it impresses on many levels, it is mainly due to its originality and to the perfection of its many elements. But like a perfectly crafted and engineered vehicle whose stiff suspension makes the drive only moderately comfortable, Inception suffers from the cold precision of an engineer who forgot that such an insistence on perfection can sometimes suffocate emotions. Kubrick dealt with this issue his entire career but managed it successfully for the most part.
Andrew O’Hehir’s piece in Salon on Inception is very much worth reading. One of the points he makes is how Nolan completely missed the boat regarding what dreams are really made of. And it is very true that when one thinks back on the film, the dream sequences are nothing like one would expect their dreams to be. Very linear, very boring, very….blockbuster-like (Dreamscape (1984) and In Dreams (1999) captured the essence of dreams a bit better, although not by much). I was quite annoyed by some of the action sequences that seemed straight out of a James Bond film and that seemed so basic compared to the overall concept of the film. I wish Nolan had gone the more artsy route and that the entire film had taken place without guns and bullets.
But enough complaining. I liked Inception. I liked it because it is original, very well made and because it wants us to think. These reasons are very much enough to, for the most part, offset the criticism i expressed earlier. And, as the theme of this blog indicates, i tend to be a sucker for anything that is a bit out there, so Inception was a delight of mind-bending originality. I found myself thinking about the film extensively for 2 or 3 days after watching it, going over each scene, trying to put the pieces together. The result is that I tend to side with the people who think that the entire film was a dream of a man in Limbo, but ultimately, it is fantastic that it created such a stir and such debates on blogs and forums.
So, congratulations on Nolan for giving us a very interesting and powerful cinematic experience, but Memento was a better film.
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2 Responses to “Inception”
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marina Says:
August 27, 2010 at 15.30Hi,
I might have a great video for you to post.
It’s a bout the new Dead Rising game.
Let em know if you are interested pleaseThanks
M. -
Affiliate Marketing Says:
May 28, 2011 at 8.29Leonardo is great actor!